I'm trying to write procedures for what we do when there is a fraud alert on someone's credit report, we call the number on the report to verify the customer, and the person who answers says this truly is identity theft.

Do we tell the customer to contact the police, do we? The reg doesn't say what we have to do once we verify the identity of the customer. I was just wondering how far others go in the investigation.

Thanks for your help.

If there is a fraud alert on the customer's credit report, that customer has already contacted law enforcement. That is a necessary step in order to get the alert placed in the credit report.

Your responsibility is to verify the customer's identity. How you do that is left to you. You must take steps to be sure that you are dealing with the real person, not the thief. That means following your verification procedures and probably relying on CIP files. However, if you discover, when you call the customer, that they did not file the application, it would be a nice thing (not required) to give the customer information about the fraudulent application so that the information can be added to the investigation.

Thanks. What I am trying to do now is determine procedures for face-to-face interviews. If the customer is sitting in front of you applying for the loan, you pull their credit report and it has a fraud alert on it with a # to call, does it make sense to call (it would if it was fraudulent), but if it really is the customer, nobody will answer.

Just a little confused. I appreciate the guidance.