Filing an online police report with the Novato Police Department is your first step in beginning to repair your credit after an Identity Theft or Fraud incident. Below we have compiled helpful resources to assist victims through this process.

After filing your police report follow these three steps to begin to repair and protect your credit: 

                                        1. Place an Initial Fraud Alert

                                        2. Order Your Credit Reports

                                        3. Create an Identity Theft Report with the FTC

There are some groups you should get in touch with if you are the victim of identity theft, some will ask for the report number you get at the end of this online police report process.

To Report Internet Crime Schemes

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.IC3.gov) is the primary government agency to receive, develop, and refer complaints regarding the rapidly expanding area of cyber crime and fraud schemes. The IC3 complaint process provides victims of cyber crimes a convenient, easily accessible, online reporting mechanism to alert law enforcement of suspected criminal and civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international levels, IC3 is the central clearinghouse for complaints on internet related crimes.

Examples: Lottery Scams, Email Phishing, Counterfeit Cashier’s Checks, Wire Transfers, etc.

See the File a Complaint” section of the IC3 Web Site for information and direction on how to submit a complaint to IC3.

To Learn How to Protect Yourself from Fraud:

StopFraud.gov provides helpful resources for protecting yourself from various forms of fraud.

More Helpful Tips:

• Protect your social security number and only give it out when required by law.
• No bank, auction site or other business should send you an email asking you to enter credit card information, passwords, social security numbers or other personal information. Often these fake emails will contain links to pages that look real but are not. If you suspect you are being directed to a fake site please go to the actual home web site of the company and inform them of what has happened.
• Avoid mail theft by obtaining a locked mailbox and dropping off outgoing mail at the local post office or postal mailbox.
• Do not give out your personal information or credit card number over the phone unless you initiated the call.
• Shred credit card offers and bank statements before you throw them away if you do not plan on using them.

When filing your online police report:

Please get and keep all papers, receipts, cancelled checks, mail from companies, etc. related to this crime.

We may contact you to get these items if needed and you should keep copies for your records. 

Upon completion of this report process you will:

• Be able to print a copy of the police report to keep for your records
• Be given a police report case number
• See the words: "your online police report has been submitted" showing that your police report is complete.