WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission helps millions of consumers each year battle identity theft. Now the woman who runs the agency, Deborah Platt Majoras, finds herself a potential victim after some of her personal information was stolen.
An FTC spokeswoman says Majoras received a letter last week from shoe retailer DSW informing her that her credit card information had been stolen. The spokeswoman declined further comment. The theft was first reported by Newsweek.
Majoras’ credit card number was among 1.4 million that were stolen from a company database.
The Ohio-based company discovered the data breach in March. It affected customers in 25 states.
Ohio’s attorney general filed suit against DSW in early June, seeking to force the retailer to contact all customers compromised in the breach. Attempts to contact many of the customers were slowed because DSW does not collect addresses at the point of purchase.
Nearly 10 million people fall victim to identity theft annually, costing consumers $5 billion in out-of-pocket losses and businesses $48 billion, according to the FTC.
Here are the steps the commission recommends for people who think their identities may have been stolen:
Put a fraud alert on your credit file by contacting any one of the three major credit bureaus.
Close the accounts you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
File a police report.
File a complaint with the FTC. The commission maintains an ID theft database that helps law enforcement initiate and build identity theft cases.
