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"In most cases, you can use your Identity Theft Report in place of a police report to clear your account and credit records of transactions that resulted from the identity theft. That’s because when you use IdentityTheft.gov, you’re reporting the crime to the Federal Trade Commission, a federal law enforcement agency. Just like when you file a police report, you’re legally obligated to tell the truth to the best of your knowledge, and subject to criminal penalties if you don’t. That makes your Identity Theft Report powerful evidence that you’re telling the truth."The hope is that IdentityTheft.gov will allow the FTC to streamline the process of helping victims while allowing local police to focus on solving other crimes. That being said, victims should still file a police report if they know the individual who stole their identity, if the culprit used their name in an encounter with the police, or if someone affected by the crime demands the victim produce a police report. To learn about additional strategies that can help someone recover their identity, please click here.