What Is a Fraud Alert? Types, How to Place One, and Removal

A fraud alert is a free notice you can place on your credit file that tells any lender pulling your report to verify your identity before opening a new account, issuing an additional card, or raising a credit limit in your name. It’s a protection built into the Fair Credit Reporting Act at 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1, and any consumer who suspects they may become a victim of identity theft can request one.¹ You place one by contacting any one of the three national credit bureaus; that bureau is required to pass the alert to the other two.

What a Fraud Alert Actually Does

With an alert on your file, lenders can still see your credit report. The alert doesn’t block access. What it does is add a verification step: before approving new credit, the business must take reasonable steps to confirm the applicant really is you, usually by calling the phone number you listed when you placed the alert.¹

There is one gap worth knowing about. The statute exempts new open-end credit plans from the verification requirement that applies to initial alerts, meaning a creditor could potentially open a new credit card account without the extra identity check that would apply to an installment loan or mortgage. Extended fraud alerts don’t carry this carve-out.¹

The Three Types of Fraud Alerts

Initial Fraud Alert

Available to anyone who suspects they’ve been or may become a victim of fraud, including anyone who just received a data breach notice. It lasts one year from the date you request it, and you can renew by placing a new one when it expires.² Before the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, the duration was only 90 days, so older guidance online may still reference the shorter period.¹

Active Duty Military Alert

For service members deployed away from their usual duty station. It lasts at least 12 months and carries the same verification requirements as an initial alert, so deployed personnel have protection during periods when they can’t easily monitor their own accounts.¹

Extended Fraud Alert

If you’ve already been victimized and can produce an identity theft report, you qualify for an extended alert lasting seven years.¹ An identity theft report typically means a report filed through IdentityTheft.gov (the FTC’s recovery portal) or a police report documenting the theft.³ An extended alert also removes you from pre-screened credit and insurance offer lists for five years, unless you ask the bureaus not to.²

How to Place a Fraud Alert

You only need to contact one of the three national credit bureaus. Under the statute’s referral requirement, whichever bureau you notify must pass the alert to the other two, and those bureaus must place the alert within 24 hours of receiving the referral.¹ That makes placement much simpler than a credit freeze, which requires contacting each bureau separately.

You can reach each bureau online or by phone:⁴

Equifax: Equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services or 800-685-1111
Experian: Experian.com/help or 888-397-3742
TransUnion: TransUnion.com/credit-help or 888-909-8872

Once the alert is placed, the bureau sends you a confirmation and you’re entitled to a free copy of your credit report. Review it for unfamiliar accounts, inquiries you didn’t authorize, or addresses where you’ve never lived. These are common early signs that someone has already used your information.¹

What You’ll Need to Provide

For an initial or active duty alert, be ready with your full name, Social Security number, date of birth, and current address so the bureau can locate the right file.³ Online and phone requests typically verify your identity through security questions drawn from your credit history. Mail requests usually require copies of a government-issued ID such as a driver’s license.⁵

Extended alerts require more. In addition to proving your identity, you must submit an identity theft report. The simplest route is through IdentityTheft.gov, where you describe the fraud and receive a report the bureaus will accept. A police report documenting the identity theft also works.³ Without this documentation, the bureau will only place an initial one-year alert.

Removing or Changing an Alert

You can ask to have a fraud alert removed before it expires. The statute allows early removal as long as the bureau can verify your identity.¹ One catch trips people up here: the one-contact referral system applies only to placing alerts, not removing them. To fully clear an alert, you have to contact each of the three bureaus individually.

To update the phone number tied to your alert without removing it, you can usually do so through your online account with each bureau or by calling their fraud department. Mail-in updates need the same kind of identity verification documents as the original request.

Fraud Alert vs. Credit Freeze

These two protections overlap in purpose but work differently, and choosing the wrong one can leave you less protected than you expect.

A fraud alert adds a verification step while still letting lenders see your report. A credit freeze goes further and blocks access to your credit file entirely. No one can open a new account in your name while a freeze is active, but that includes you. If you want to apply for a mortgage, car loan, or new credit card, you have to lift the freeze first.²

Both are free under federal law. Freezes became free nationwide when the 2018 Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act took effect, eliminating fees that some states had previously allowed.⁶ A few other practical differences:

Placement: a fraud alert requires contacting one bureau; a freeze requires contacting all three separately.
Duration: an initial fraud alert lasts one year and must be renewed. A freeze stays in place indefinitely until you lift it.
Lifting speed: a freeze must be lifted within one business day of your request, which can create a short delay when you need credit quickly.
Pre-screened offers: an initial fraud alert doesn’t stop pre-approved credit offers from arriving in your mailbox. An extended alert does, for five years. A freeze has no effect on pre-screened offers.

For someone who just received a data breach notice and wants basic protection, an initial fraud alert is the fastest option. If you’ve already experienced identity theft or want the strongest possible barrier, a freeze is more effective because it removes the possibility of a lender skipping the verification step.

Does a Fraud Alert Hurt Your Credit Score?

No. Placing a fraud alert does not lower your credit score. The alert is a flag for lenders, not a negative mark on your file.⁷ The same is true for credit freezes. Neither tool changes the underlying data in your report or affects how scoring models evaluate your payment history, balances, or account age. The only practical inconvenience is the extra verification step a lender has to take when you legitimately apply for credit.

If a Lender Ignores the Alert

The verification requirement isn’t optional. If a lender opens a new account in your name without following the steps the statute requires, the FCRA’s enforcement provisions apply, and the remedies depend on whether the violation was willful or merely negligent.

For willful violations, you can recover either your actual financial losses or statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, whichever is greater. A court can also award punitive damages, plus attorney’s fees and costs.⁸ For negligent violations, you can recover your actual damages along with attorney’s fees and costs, but statutory minimums and punitive damages aren’t available.⁹

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
2
Consumer Advice (FTC). Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts
3
Office for Victims of Crime. Fraud Alerts and Credit Freezes
4
IdentityTheft.gov. Credit Bureau Contacts
5
Federal Trade Commission: IdentityTheft.gov. Identity Theft Letter to a Credit Bureau
6
Federal Trade Commission. Starting Today, New Federal Law Allows Consumers to Place Free Credit Freezes and Yearlong Fraud Alerts
7
Equifax. Will Placing a Fraud Alert Hurt My Credit Scores
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681o – Civil Liability for Negligent Noncompliance