Most people think that it won't happen to them. When it does, they are shocked. They feel violated, and worse, they are often well on the road to financial ruin before they even know that a crime has been committed against them. You guessed it. We are talking about Identity Theft, and if this has happened to you, you may actually need an identity theft attorney.

As much as we hear about identity theft today, few people know what steps to take when they first realize that their identities have been stolen. Most people mistakenly think that they can handle things on their own, and don't seek 'outside help.' This is the worst mistake that you can make, and the chances for recovering from the identity theft just became slimmer.

It is true that there are steps that you need to take. Obviously, you need to notify your bank and cancel your bank cards. You need to call the driver's license office in your state and the social security administration. You definitely need a copy of your credit report, and you may even need to contact the State Department to ensure that nobody is using your identity to obtain a passport. There is much to do, and it takes time.

Even if you start taking all of these steps, you still most likely need an identity theft attorney. Here is what will happen without one. You get your credit report, and discover that someone is using your good name - and your good credit - to obtain expensive items. If you're lucky, they haven't used your credit card, but there is a good chance that even if they didn't use your existing credit cards, they have obtained other credit cards, as well as lines of credit, in your name.

You see this, and you start contacting these companies, and even banks, to let them know that the person who opened the line of credit in your name is not you. You expect the company to take immediate action to get this off of your credit report, but that is not going to happen. In fact, they are most likely going to treat you like a criminal. They will essentially tell you that you are responsible for thousands of dollars and that if you don't pay; they are going to take legal action against you. You see, most businesses are not set up to deal with the effects of identity theft. They just want the money that is owed to them, whether you are the one that owes that money or not. Their records say that you owe it.

This is why you need an identity theft attorney from the get-go. The identity theft attorney will work with you to contact creditors and credit bureaus. The attorney will then work with you to get the documentation that the companies and credit bureaus require, so that the negative report can be removed from the company files, as well as your credit file. The identity theft attorney will follow up to ensure that everything was done correctly, and will work to make sure that your good name is actually protected, despite what someone else may be doing with your information. If for some reason a company or credit bureau is grossly uninformed, your identity theft attorney will take legal action against them, so that a judge can give them the schooling that they need - usually at their expense.

Identity theft is a serious problem today, and you can be affected by it before you know it. If it happens to you, the best thing that you can do for your peace of mind, and your good credit, is to get in touch with an identity theft attorney right away. The worst thing that you can do is to try to fix things on your own. In fact, you will find that trying to correct the problems caused by identity theft without legal guidance is more costly than paying an identity theft attorney in the long run.