How to File a Dallas Police Identity Theft Report

Nearly 74,000 Texans were victims of identity theft in 2020—the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington Texas metro area ranks 11th for the least safe cities for identity theft in the United States. So it shouldn't surprise you that Texas itself ranks 4th in the nation for identity theft. Once you realize you've been victimized by identity theft in Dallas, you must contact your local police or sheriff's office to file a report.

In Dallas, that means filing a police identity theft report online in most cases instead of going in person to your local police station (although you still can). It doesn't matter if the actual identity theft occurred in another city or in another state. Identity theft is a crime. And it will affect many areas of your life.

What Is Identity Theft?

When someone steals your personal or financial information and uses that information to open accounts in your name, make purchases, or otherwise use that personal information without your permission, that's identity theft. It is an invasion of privacy that can be quite unnerving.

Is Identity Theft Out of My Control?

Once identity theft occurs, yes, it is out of your control. The time for control comes before it happens. Keeping your personal information like your social security number, credit card information, and financial statements secure and not thrown away without shredding is one way to keep your personal information out of the hands of identity thieves.

Stay vigilant with your financial information by limiting access to online banking information. Change passwords often and make them strong by varying up letters, numbers, and accepted punctuation symbols.

6 Signs That You May Be a Victim of Identity Theft

If you are receiving strange notices or statements about credit accounts that you've never opened or are receiving phone calls from bill collectors for accounts that you've never heard of, you might be a victim of identity theft.

Other signs include:

1. Denial of credit for no reason
2. Credit reports that contain inaccurate information
3. Outright credit card fraud at a local merchant
4. No longer receiving bills and statements in snail mail
5. Social security benefits using your name, that you're not receiving
6. IRS tax refund that you didn't file or get

Those are some typical signs of identity theft. Other ways include someone filing for unemployment benefits in your name, stealing a stimulus check, simply buying groceries out of state, to buying a car from a dealer you've never heard of.

How to File a Police Report for Identity Theft in Dallas, TX

The Dallas Police Department will only initiate a criminal investigation if the identity theft occurred within the city of Dallas. If it occurred outside Dallas, they will still accept a police report but will not investigate any criminal activity. In this case, they will forward your report to the appropriate agency in the city where it happened so that the investigation will proceed from there.

Your Identity Theft Complaint Form​ is an online .pdf form containing the following sections:

The narrative information is documentation showing how your identifying information was used. It could be an Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion credit report, a credit card, or a home or car loan application. When submitting documentation such as credit reports, include only the first page. The first page will have most of the information needed for the police report.

Pain Point

When you fill out the form, you may feel that you're doing the footwork--the investigation yourself. You may not know how to contact the witness or if the witness can I.D. the suspect. You most certainly may be uncomfortable reporting a suspect's distinguishing features; the vehicle makes, model, and license. You may not know the IP address of where your information was used online. Heck, you may not even know what an IP address is!

This can make the act of filling out the police report a problem--especially knowing that most identity thieves are not caught or prosecuted.

The other information required to file your Dallas police identity theft report:

• A Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Report
• Government-issued I.D. in color
• All narrative documents in PDF or other legible formats

The identity theft offense must have occurred in the past seven years. It may be tough to recall the details as many of us have a hard time remembering what we eat for breakfast!

What Else Do I Need to Do?

Besides completing the police report to the best of your ability and knowledge of the offense and reporting the identity theft to the FTC, freeze your credit reports and set up fraud alerts with them.

Don’t throw out any reports or documentation of your identity theft case for a minimum of 7 to 10 years. It's not required for you to keep it. However, many items stay on your credit report that long. It's just good policy to keep documentation as you never know if you will need it--like if you plan on suing in the future.

DoNotPay Can Make Filing Your Dallas Police Identity Theft Report Simpler

Since you have seven years to file a Dallas police identity theft report, the details of your victimization may be fuzzy.

There's a lot of documentation, recollection, and perseverance in getting your good name back. DoNotPay can help you make a police report, report identity theft to the FTC, freeze your credit reports, and set up fraud alerts with the "Big 3" credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

How to use DoNotPay's alternate solution:

1. Search "identity theft" on DoNotPay and select the type of incident you would like to report.
2. Tell us more about the incident that occurred, including the location, date, time, financial loss, and any suspect information you may have.
3. We'll identify whether you should file an FTC report, contact the IRS, freeze your credit report, contact state agencies, or file a police report. Once we guide you through the best options, we'll automatically submit the reports on your behalf.

And that's it. DoNotPay will make sure your identity theft information gets sent to the right place. We'll upload confirmation documents for you to view, and if the contacts need more information, they will reach out to you personally via email or mail.

Why Use DoNotPay to File Your Dallas Police Report?

• It's Fast—Your police report won't take hours.
• It's Easy—The process is step-by-step, with no tedious forms.
• We're Successful—Your police report will get to the proper authorities.

But that’s not all you can do with the app.

What Else Can DoNotPay Do?

You can use DoNotPay for all kinds of legwork, like:

• Victim Compensation
• Contact Government Representatives
• Chargebacks and Refunds
• Small Claims Court
• Insurance Claims

Try it today and see!