Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
What to do after identity theft in New Hampshire
This is what to do after identity theft, in the order that limits the damage: the calls to make today, the fraud alert or credit freeze, your report at IdentityTheft.gov, and the New Hampshire offices that can help. It ends with the paper trail, so the next thief finds nothing in your recycling bin.
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Quick answer
After identity theft, call the fraud department of every company where the fraud happened and close or freeze those accounts, then place a free fraud alert with one credit bureau (it lasts one year) or a free credit freeze with all three. Next, report the theft at IdentityTheft.gov to get an Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan, check your credit reports, and in New Hampshire bring any business that will not fix the problem to the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau. When the accounts are fixed, New Hampshire Document Shredding destroys the old statements and letters for 99 cents a pound at its Tewksbury drop-off, part of the same residential shredding service every NH household can use.
What to do after identity theft in the first 24 hours
The first day decides how far the damage spreads. A thief who opened one card will try a second, and a thief inside your email will reset every password tied to it. Your job today is to shut the doors that are already open, then make it hard to open new ones.
Do not wait until you know how it happened. Most people never find out whether it was a data breach, a stolen mailbox, a phishing text or a bag of old statements on the curb. The steps below work the same either way, and they come straight from the Federal Trade Commission’s recovery guidance.
- Call the fraud departmentsStart with the companies where you see the fraud: the bank, the card issuer, the phone carrier, the store card. Tell them your identity was stolen and ask them to close or freeze the affected accounts. Use the number on the back of your card or the company’s own website, never a number from a text or email you were sent.
- Change logins, passwords and PINsThe FTC lists this with the first calls. Start with your email account, because every other password reset goes through it, then banking, then everything else. Turn on two-step sign-in where the company offers it.
- Place a fraud alert or a credit freezeA fraud alert takes one call to one credit bureau, which must tell the other two. A freeze takes three requests, one to each bureau, and stops most new credit cold. Both are free. The next section helps you choose.
- Report it at IdentityTheft.govThe FTC site turns your answers into an Identity Theft Report and a free personal recovery plan. Do it the same day while the details are fresh, and save or print the report before you close the page.
- Start a recovery logWrite down every call: the date, the company, the person you spoke to, what they agreed to do and any reference number. The IRS gives the same advice for tax cases, telling victims to keep records of letters, calls and emails.
A stolen wallet or purse adds a step. Call the card issuers first, then replace your driver’s license through the state, and think about what else was in there: a Medicare card, a checkbook, a work badge, a spare key with your address on a tag. Each one is its own call.
Fraud alert or credit freeze: which one, and when
People mix these up, and the difference matters. A fraud alert tells lenders to verify your identity before they open new credit in your name. A credit freeze stops the bureaus from releasing your report to most new lenders at all, so an application in your name usually fails before anyone has to verify anything.
| Protection | How long it lasts | How to place it | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial fraud alert | 1 year, and you can renew it | Contact one bureau. It must notify the other two | Free | Anyone who is or suspects they may be a victim, while you sort out the details |
| Extended fraud alert | 7 years | Contact one bureau with an FTC Identity Theft Report or a police report | Free | Confirmed victims who still need to apply for credit now and then |
| Active duty alert | 1 year, renewable for the length of a deployment | Contact one bureau | Free | Active duty servicemembers |
| Credit freeze | Until you lift it | Contact Equifax, Experian and TransUnion separately | Free to place and lift | Most victims, and most households who are not applying for credit this month |
Our opinion, after years of hearing these stories at the counter: freeze. It costs nothing, the FTC says it does not affect your credit score, and it stays on until you lift it. When you need a car loan or a new apartment, ask the lender which bureau it checks, lift the freeze at that one bureau only, then put it back. The FTC suggests exactly that approach.
Place the fraud alert too if you want a belt with your suspenders. The FTC’s 2024 recovery advice pairs the two: place the alert, and freeze your credit if you have not already. Ask about your children’s files as well if their documents were in the same stolen folder or breached file.
Report it at IdentityTheft.gov and build your recovery plan
IdentityTheft.gov is the FTC’s one-stop site for reporting identity theft and fixing it. You answer questions about what happened, and the site produces two things: an Identity Theft Report that shows businesses someone stole your identity, and a personal recovery plan with step-by-step advice. It also offers sample letters for the disputes you will need to send.
The report is the key that opens other doors. The credit bureaus use it to block fraudulent information, and it is one of the two documents that qualify you for the 7-year extended fraud alert. Creditors may ask for it before they remove a debt that is not yours.
Create an account on the site if you can, so you can come back to the plan as new problems surface. If you skip the account, print or save the report and plan before you leave the page. The site works in Spanish at RobodeIdentidad.gov.
Have these in front of you before you start
- The accounts or charges you know are fraudulent, with dates and amounts.
- Any letter, email or text that tipped you off, including a breach notice from a company.
- Your recent credit reports, so you can list every account you do not recognize.
- Your call log from the first day, with reference numbers.
- A police report number, if you have already filed one with your town’s police department.
On police reports: many cases never need one, because the FTC report does the same job with most businesses. File one with your local police anyway if the thief is someone you know, if you have a name or an address, or if a creditor or debt collector asks for it. Keep a copy with the FTC report.
The recovery plan at a glance
Recovery is a project, not a phone call. The first three steps take a day. The rest take weeks of letters, follow-up calls and checking reports. These four numbers come from the FTC and shape how you spend that time.
Pull your credit reports early and again a few weeks later. The FTC notes you can check your reports once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. Read every line: accounts, addresses, employers and hard inquiries. An address you never lived at is often the first sign of where the thief is sending mail.
For each fraudulent account, ask the business to close it and to send a letter confirming the account is not yours and has been removed from your report. For each fraudulent charge on a real account, ask for it to be removed and for written confirmation. Then write to each bureau with your Identity Theft Report and proof of identity and ask it to block the false information.
Tax, account takeover and breach letters: the special cases
Most identity theft is a new credit card or a drained account, and the steps above cover it. A few kinds need extra calls, and missing one can leave a problem open for a year.
Tax identity theft
If someone filed a return with your Social Security number, follow the instructions in any IRS letter. The IRS says most people do not need Form 14039 and should not file it if they already reported through IdentityTheft.gov. Keep filing and paying your taxes as usual.
An IRS IP PIN
The IRS recommends an Identity Protection PIN as a protective step. It keeps anyone else from filing a return with your taxpayer number. Request it in your IRS online account or the IRS app, or with Form 15227 if you cannot get into an account.
Account takeover
When the thief is inside a real account, the bank’s fraud team leads. Ask for new account numbers, new cards and a new online login. Stop payment on stolen checks right away and order new checks with a new account number.
A breach letter
A letter saying a company lost your data is not proof of theft, but it is a reason to freeze. Under New Hampshire law the letter must describe the incident, the approximate date, the type of information taken and a phone number for the company.
Businesses, trusts and estates use a different IRS form, 14039-B, for their own tax identity theft. If you are an executor dealing with a parent’s identity, our post on shredding after a death in NH covers which of the decedent’s papers to hold and which to shred first.
New Hampshire help: the Attorney General and the breach notice law
Federal tools do most of the work, but two New Hampshire pieces matter. One is the state office that takes consumer complaints. The other is the law that tells businesses what they owe you when they lose your data.
The Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau
The bureau sits inside the New Hampshire Department of Justice, the Attorney General’s office, at doj.nh.gov. It investigates unfair and deceptive practices involving New Hampshire consumers, and it takes complaints in writing on its consumer complaint form, online or on paper.
Use it when a business will not fix a fraudulent account, keeps billing you after you sent your Identity Theft Report, or a debt collector ignores your dispute. The bureau is a law enforcement office. It cannot act as your lawyer, but a complaint on file puts the company on notice.
RSA 359-C:20, the breach notice law
New Hampshire’s notice of security breach law covers names combined with a Social Security number, a driver’s license or other government ID number, or an account or card number with the code that opens it. A business that finds such data was taken must assess whether misuse is likely and, if it is or it cannot tell, notify affected residents as soon as possible.
The same law gives an injured person the right to sue, and the Attorney General’s office enforces it. Our post on New Hampshire data breach law explains it from the business side.
Expect calls and texts claiming to be from your bank, the IRS or the Attorney General’s office in the weeks after a theft. Thieves read the same breach news you do. Hang up and call back on a number you look up yourself.
What to do after identity theft with the paper trail
Once the accounts are closed, you are left with two piles of paper. One pile proves what happened and you need to keep it. The other is years of old statements, closed-account letters, pre-approved offers and replaced cards, and every page carries your name, address and account numbers. That second pile is how many households get hit twice.
| Keep | Shred once the issue is closed |
|---|---|
| Your FTC Identity Theft Report and recovery plan | Statements for accounts that were closed and replaced |
| Letters from creditors confirming an account was not yours | Old checks and check stubs for a closed account number |
| Letters from the credit bureaus confirming blocks | Expired and replaced debit and credit cards (cut the chip, or bring them in a separate bag) |
| Your call log and copies of every dispute letter | Pre-approved credit offers and convenience checks |
| Police report and any IRS letters | Duplicate printouts of reports you no longer need |
| Tax records still inside the IRS window | Tax records past the IRS window, usually 3 years after filing |
Keep the first column together in one folder, for years. Identity theft has a long tail: an old debt can be sold to a new collector, or a stale account can reappear on a report. The confirmation letters are how you end those arguments in one phone call.
The second column should not go in the curbside bin or the transfer-station paper pile, where anyone can lift a bag. Shred it. A home shredder handles a few sheets a week. For a closet of old statements, a banker’s box of paper weighs about 30 pounds, and our drop-off shredding counter charges 99 cents a pound plus $34.90 per job. One box comes to $64.60, five boxes to $183.40.
Not sure what is worth shredding? Our guide to what documents to shred ranks them, and the post on whether to shred old bank statements covers how long to hold them. Old phones and laptops that held your accounts need hard drive destruction, quoted per item.
Stop it from happening twice
A victim’s name is worth more to a thief after the first success, because it is proven to work. The freeze does the heavy lifting on new credit. The habits below close the other gaps, and none of them cost much.
Pull mail daily, use a locking mailbox if you live on a busy road, and switch statements to paperless where you can. Ask any company still mailing you new cards to tell you when one ships.
Paper at home
Use one locked box for papers waiting to be shredded, and empty it on a schedule. Our post on identity theft from trash shows what thieves look for in a bin.
Accounts
Keep the freeze on, check one bureau report every few months, and set up account alerts for large charges and new payees. Keep your IRS IP PIN somewhere safe, away from the tax folder.
Our identity theft prevention plan turns these into a routine for the year. For the numbers behind the problem in this state, see our page on New Hampshire identity theft statistics, built from FTC data.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first thing to do after identity theft?
Call the fraud department of each company where you see fraud and ask them to close or freeze the affected accounts, then change your logins, passwords and PINs, starting with email. Those calls stop the damage that is already happening. Right after that, place a fraud alert or a credit freeze and report the theft at IdentityTheft.gov.
Should I place a fraud alert or a credit freeze?
For most victims, a freeze. The FTC says it is free to place and lift, does not affect your credit score and lasts until you lift it. You must contact Equifax, Experian and TransUnion separately. A fraud alert takes one call to one bureau and lasts one year, and you can use both. An extended fraud alert lasts 7 years once you have an FTC or police report.
Do I need a police report for identity theft?
Often not. The Identity Theft Report you get at IdentityTheft.gov is what most businesses and the credit bureaus ask for, and it also qualifies you for the 7-year extended fraud alert. File a report with your local police department as well if you know who the thief is, have an address, or a creditor asks for one. Keep a copy with your FTC report.
Who can help me in New Hampshire?
The Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau at the New Hampshire Department of Justice takes written consumer complaints and enforces the state’s breach notice law, RSA 359-C. Use it when a business will not correct a fraudulent account or ignores your dispute. It is a law enforcement office, so it cannot act as your lawyer. Federal reporting still goes through IdentityTheft.gov.
Someone filed a tax return in my name. What now?
Follow the instructions in any IRS letter or notice, and keep filing and paying your taxes as usual. The IRS says most people do not need Form 14039 and should not file it if they already reported through IdentityTheft.gov or the IRS has already written to them. Ask for an Identity Protection PIN in your IRS online account so no one else can file with your number.
How often should I check my credit reports after identity theft?
Check all three soon after the theft, then again every few weeks until every fraudulent account and inquiry is gone. The FTC notes you can check your reports once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. Look at accounts, addresses, employers and hard inquiries. After the case is closed, checking one bureau every few months is a sensible habit.
What paperwork should I keep after the case is closed?
Keep your FTC Identity Theft Report, recovery plan, call log, dispute letters and every letter confirming an account was not yours or was blocked. Old debts can be resold, and those letters end the argument fast. Shred statements and checks for closed accounts, replaced cards and old credit offers instead of recycling them.
What does it cost to shred old statements after identity theft?
At our Tewksbury drop-off, paper is 99 cents a pound and a banker’s box weighs about 30 pounds. Every job adds $34.90 in per-job fees, which cover the Certificate of Destruction paperwork and recycling. One box comes to $64.60 and five boxes to $183.40. At 10 or more large boxes the rate is $20 a box. Walk in Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sources
- FTC Consumer Advice, How to recover from identity theft (checked November 2026)
- FTC Consumer Advice, What To Know About Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts (checked November 2026)
- FTC Consumer Advice, Stolen identity? Get help at IdentityTheft.gov (checked November 2026)
- IRS, Identity theft guide for individuals (checked November 2026)
- New Hampshire RSA 359-C:20, Notice of security breach required (NH General Court) (checked November 2026)
- New Hampshire RSA 359-C:21, Violation and enforcement (NH General Court) (checked November 2026)
Clear out the old paper trail
Once your accounts are fixed, bring the statements, checks and replaced cards to Tewksbury on any weekday, or book a pickup. Drop-off paper is cross-cut shredded at our office the same business day it reaches the counter, and every job comes with a Certificate of Destruction.
Visit or call
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Route 38 near the I-495 interchange, about 15 minutes south of the NH line. Free parking out front, and staff help you unload.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Witnessed sessions and pickups outside these hours by appointment.
Three ways to shred: walk-in drop-off at 99¢ per pound, pickup by zone from $129.95, or a witnessed session at $1.99 per pound.
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.