Identity Theft & Fraud Recovery

You got a fraud alert, a weird charge, or a notice that your data was in a breach — and now you're staring at a maze of bureaus, banks, and forms with no idea what order to do them in, while a clock may be running on accounts opened in your name. This playbook turns that panic into a clear sequence: freeze your credit at all three bureaus so the bleeding stops, file the FTC Identity Theft Report that builds your official record, pull and scan your credit reports to map the damage, dispute the fraud in the right order (companies, then bureaus, then the CFPB), and build a lightweight monitoring routine so it doesn't quietly come back. Every section comes as copy-paste letters, scripts, and checklists your Personal Finance Ally runs for you.