Protecting Yourself Against Identity Theft During Divorce

 Posted on December 12, 2018 in Divorce

Going through a divorce can put you at risk of identity theft by your spouse, who knows much of your personal information and may be motivated to use it against you. He or she may steal your identity for financial gain or revenge. Even if your spouse has no history of stealing from you, the stress of divorce may cause him or her to behave unusually. If you do not protect yourself in time, identity theft can drain your financial resources and ruin your credit rating.

Prevention

You should act during your divorce as though your personal information is vulnerable, even if the likelihood that your spouse would steal your identity seems remote. Your spouse knows enough about you to circumvent some of the security measures that protect your private accounts. At the beginning of your divorce, you should:

• Run a credit report so you are aware of all the financial accounts you are connected to and may be liable for;
• Revoke your spouse’s access to your individual accounts that you gave him or her during your marriage;
• Create individual accounts to replace the marital counts that you controlled equally with your spouse;
• Change your passwords to something impersonal so your spouse will not have a chance of guessing it; and
• Set up security alerts on your financial accounts to monitor suspicious and potentially fraudulent activity.

Reaction

You must respond quickly to minimize the damage if you suspect that your spouse has used your identity for fraudulent activity. You should:

• Contact the institutions where your spouse created accounts in your name in order to close those accounts;
• Let the institutions know that you suspect identity theft and want to indefinitely freeze the opening of any new accounts or lines of credit;
• Ask about their policies for reimbursement in cases of identity theft;
• Inform the police about your identity theft incident; and
• Determine whether you want to file a lawsuit against your spouse for the relief of the debt.

Identity theft is a crime, even when someone’s legal spouse commits it. Understand that prosecutors will determine whether to press criminal charges against your spouse with little regard to what you want.

Contact a St. Charles Divorce Attorney

Identity theft is one of many ways that your spouse can be financially manipulative during your divorce. He or she may lie about or attempt to hide assets to gain an advantage. A Kane County divorce attorney at Goostree Law Group can protect your financial interests. To schedule a free consultation, call 630-584-4800.

Source:

https://lifars.com/2015/02/divorce-and-identity-theft/