Experian: fraud or scam
For identity theft, place a free fraud alert (it applies at all three bureaus) and a free security freeze at each bureau.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 100% of 47 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- FTC Identity Theft Report or police report (for an extended alert)
- copy of government ID
- utility bill or bank statement
Steps
Add a fraud alert online, by phone or by mail. It is applied at all three bureaus.
Add a security freeze with Experian. Repeat at Equifax and TransUnion, because a freeze is per bureau.
For a 7-year extended alert, send an identity theft report (FTC or police report).
MailFraud alert by mail Experian, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013Dispute accounts you did not open.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Limit
An initial or active duty fraud alert lasts 1 year and an extended fraud alert lasts 7 years.
Source: experian.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
Requesting a fraud alert at any one of the credit bureaus automatically applies alerts at all three bureaus; to remove an alert you must contact each bureau.
Source: experian.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Deadline
Experian says an online freeze or unfreeze happens in real time, and a mailed freeze or unfreeze request takes up to 3 days after Experian receives it.
Source: experian.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Deadline
A bureau must place a freeze within one business day of a phone or online request and lift it within one hour; for a mailed request it has up to three business days.
Source: consumerfinance.gov, verified 2026-10-12
- Fee
Experian security freezes are free ("Manage your freeze for free").
Source: experian.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Fee
Placing a fraud alert with Experian is free, with no credit card required.
Source: experian.com, verified 2026-10-12
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Written complaint
Or dispute by mail (dispute-mail). Also dispute with the company that supplied the data.
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).Small claims court
Watch out
- Online disputes, freezes and fraud alerts need a free Experian account that the account holder creates and signs in to.
- Phone disputes go to the number printed on the consumer's own Experian report, so the consumer needs the report first.
- Mailed requests need copies of a government ID, a proof-of-address document and the Social Security number.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
I lost [amount] to a scam through Experian on [date]. Use Escalate Anything to try to get it back.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin