Lisa Carey asked:




If you’ve ever considered investing in the peace of mind an identity theft prevention and protection service, the good news is that today you many more options than in the past.

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Jeff Kiser asked:




Identity theft prevention services do not exactly prevent identity theft. They simply make it much harder for thieves to use the personal information they have stolen, thereby protecting you against many of the techniques identity thieves use.

We give away personal information all the time. Any time you write a check at the store, charge airline tickets, rent a car, mail your tax returns, change cell phone service providers, or apply for a credit card you are giving away bits of personal information, such as your bank and credit card account numbers, your Social Security number and your name, address, and phone number. These bits and pieces are a treasure trove to an identity thief. Once thieves have this information, they can use it without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft.

For example, identity thieves can take your personal information to redirect your financial data, such as bank and credit card statements, to prevent you from noticing that your existing credit card or bank account is being used without your knowledge. Identity theft prevention services prevent this from happening. This doesn’t mean, of course, that a thief couldn’t have charged things on a stolen credit card, only that you would know about it sooner…assuming you check your monthly statements.

Protection services also prevent new accounts from being set up by identity thieves in your name. This protection is important because the only way you would know this had happened was when you began to be harassed by collection agencies or when you try to get credit, only to find your credit rating has been trashed.

Identity theft prevention services also help you should the thieves be successful, in that they will help you with the police regarding warrants as well as assist you with getting collection agencies to stop harassing you for debts that aren’t yours.

If you think that you don’t need these services because, after all, if you report your credit cards stolen, you won’t get charged for the bogus charges, think again. Identity thieves don’t just use credit cards. They can set up new cell phone accounts in your name. They can take out a car loan in your name. They can give your name should they be arrested then, when they don’t show up at court, a warrant is issued in your name!

Identity theft prevention services are inexpensive…generally around $100 a year per individual or $150 for households. If you aren’t a careful type, guarding your personal information, reading your statements carefully and noticing if they don’t arrive, shredding mail with identifying information, then an identity theft prevention service might be right for you.

Andrew

Chad Kiser asked:


With the continue growth of the Internet as a marketplace for buying and selling merchandise, conducting banking and credit card transactions and more, a nefarious underworld has popped up in the form of identity thieves. Since the problem has grown to such a problem that government agencies cannot effectively protect us, private industry has stepped in. Identity Theft Prevention Programs offer consumers piece of mind by monitoring your credit report and stopping identity theft in its tracks.

In the course of our daily commerce, we unwittingly give out much of our sensitive personal data. We write checks for bill paying, we rent a hotel room using a credit card, we apply for jobs and list our social security number, we use our cell phones to call friends and generally we act as if no one has access to these avenues of communication. Each time we communicate with others, we put ourselves at risk. Not protecting your personal information is like leaving the front door open and putting up a sign welcoming thieves inside to take what they want.

Thieves will use your credit card number to charge merchandise and you will not know about it until you have a great many charges rung up. Thieves will use your social security number to take out a car loan and then make off with the car. You won’t know about this until the loan payment statements start arriving in your mailbox. All of this creates major headaches for you unless you have an identity theft prevention service in place. These thefts may still occur but you will be notified about them much earlier thus keeping the damage to a minimum. Diligence in checking your monthly statements is still needed though. Some identity theft prevention services are set up to call you when any suspicious activity occurs in your accounts, be it large purchases or purchases made from a different location from your home area.

These services will prevent collection agencies from calling you repeatedly and will keep your credit rating at the level where it is supposed to be. Law enforcement agencies are helped greatly by these services because they are more easily able to zero in on the thieves before the trail grows cold.

Identity thieves have been known to purchase cell phone service with stolen information and ring up thousands of dollars in calls. They have also given stolen information when arrested for a crime and then not show up in court. The authorities then issue an arrest warrant for you.

The pricetag for identity theft services range from $100 to $150 depending on the coverage criteria. Many people are so busy, careless or just plain stuplid that they inappropriatly handle their sensitive data. Besides safeguarding your own information, these identity theft prevention agencies are the best way to guard against theft.



Gladys

Vijayanand asked:


Mike was like millions of Americans. He worked hard, was cautious with his spending and even paid off his credit card each month. He thought he was doing everything right. Then, something unexpected happened. He started getting calls from collection agencies. They were collecting on credit cards and other lines of credit Mike never opened. Mike had been the victim of ID theft.

Things went down hill fast for Mike’s credit. He quickly realized that there were several credit cards opened in his name fraudulently, and each one had overdue balances of thousands of dollars. Those balances had been festering on Mike’s credit report for months without his knowledge causing Mike’s credit rating to plummet to an abysmal 530.

This low credit rating affected Mike in numerous ways. He needed a new car, but was unable to get approval for a car loan. His oldest son was heading to college, but the school loans Mike applied for were rejected. Even Mike’s insurance premiums went up as a result of his low credit score. Mike knew he needed to do something fast.

Mike quickly discovered that the task of restoring his credit and good name was not as simple as he thought it would be. He would have to contact all of the credit agencies, place fraud alerts on his credit and investigate where else his identity had been compromised among other things. Where was Mike going to find the time to do all of these things? He worked full time and had a family to think about. Mike felt like he was caught in an impossible situation. In the end, it took Mike hundreds of hours to restore his credit rating and correct the errors on his credit report.

Once his credit was back to normal, Mike was determined never to allow such a thing to happen to him again. Mike had a friend who had gone through a similar experience just a year before. He recommended ID TheftSmart to Mike. ID TheftSmart is an Identity Theft Prevention and restoration service offered by Comodo, an innovative identity and trust assurance company. If Mike had already had ID TheftSmart program when he was victimized, his pre-theft credit status would have been restored without having to sacrifice hundreds of hours of his time.

To Mike’s surprise, he found that the licensed investigators at Comodo were prepared to do the lion’s share of the work to restore their client’s damaged credit. They work with the credit agencies to correct the issues on a credit report, place fraud alerts and investigate other issues related to ID Theft like criminal records, fraudulent check activity and other fraudulent uses of a social security number. Some of these issues Mike had not even considered when working to restore his damaged credit.

Mike decided to use the ID TheftSmart program to protect himself from future assaults on his credit, and you can do the same. The ID TheftSmart program monitors your credit on an ongoing basis so that you don’t have to go through the same ordeal Mike did. ID TheftSmart will alert you whenever someone tries to open a line of credit in your name. If your credit is compromised, the Identity Fraud Restoration services do most of the work to resolve your identity theft issues.



Carrie