TransUnion: fraud or scam
For identity theft, place a free fraud alert (one bureau tells the other two) and a free security freeze at each bureau.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 97% of 37 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
- proof of address
Steps
Place a fraud alert. One placed at Equifax or Experian also reaches TransUnion.
Place a security freeze with TransUnion online or by phone. Repeat at Equifax and Experian, because a freeze is per bureau.
OnlineSecurity freezeDispute accounts you did not open.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Limit
An initial fraud alert lasts one year and can be renewed; an extended fraud alert lasts seven years; an active duty alert lasts one year.
Source: consumer.ftc.gov, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
The credit bureau you contact must tell the other two to place an initial fraud alert on your credit report.
Source: consumer.ftc.gov, 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
There is no cost to place or lift a credit freeze, and a freeze lasts until you lift it.
Source: consumer.ftc.gov, 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
- The online dispute redirects to a TransUnion sign-in page; the account holder must sign in or create an account.
- transunion.com and service.transunion.com blocked automated page fetches (HTTP 403) on 2026-10-12.
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 TransUnion on [date]. Use Escalate Anything to try to get it back.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin