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Home Page > Finance > Personal Finance > Personal Finance – Three Specific Ways on How To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft

Personal Finance – Three Specific Ways on How To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft

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Posted: Jul 28, 2010 |Comments: 0
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Identity theft is the leading cause of credit card fraud in the United States, and cumulative financial damages caused to banking industry reach billions of dollars every year. While fraud protection is a cool innovation, a lot of people would rather not have to deal with suspected fraud in their accounts, regardless of whether they are true or false.

There are three simple, specific ways on how to protect yourself from potential identity theft, and here they are:

First, contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB. When you are not certain of the reputation of a merchant you can always call the BBB to verify. The BBB is a central agency that lists, keeps track, and rates business establishments based on how trustworthy they are. You can contact the BBB by visiting their local offices, calling them over the phone, or by visiting their website.

Second, get a caller ID for your phone. This allows you to know who is calling you before you even answer the call. When someone calls you and it comes from a very suspicious number, then simply hang up or report them to the authorities. A caller might be a fraudster when his phone’s area code or country code prefix is different from your own, or when the caller ID doesn’t show any number, which probably suggest that they are calling you via the internet.

Third, aside from guarding your identity in the internet, it is also important to protect your information that is stored in non-electronic media like paper. Shred or properly dispose of sensitive documents that are not needed anymore. Do not simply throw them in the trash, as somebody can easily pick them up and use your personal information for their own benefit, at your expense.

Many people are very scared of the potential effects of identity theft. However, if all these three tips are carefully carried out, there will be very, very little to worry about.

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Sammi Jonesman -
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Sammi is very picky about where she shops online. She only uses secure sites, her favorite is Garden Harvest Supply. She can get everything from lantana plants to homemade jams and jellies from them!

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Article Tags:
personal finance, identity theft, identity theft protection, deal with identity theft, credit card

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The first credit reporting agency is TransUnion. Founded in 1968, it began reporting on credit for consumers in 1969, building itself up by acquiring city credit bureaus. Today, it operates with 250 offices in the United States and 24 offices in other countries, while having its headquarters based in Chicago

The second credit reporting agency is the oldest and largest of the three. It is Equifax and it was founded in 1899. Growing quickly, the company had offices throughout North America by 1920, and was the holder of millions of credit reports on American citizens by the 1960s. The company offers several services including CreditLock, which prevents and limits inquiries into your credit report. You can set the preferences for access to your report, making it much easier to protect your credit with this credit reporting agency.

The third credit reporting agency is the youngest and the smallest. It is Experian and it was founded in Nottingham in 1980. Over the years, it acquired credit reporting businesses until the 2000s, when it became one of the big three credit reporting agencies in the world with TransUnion and Equifax.

So, why do you need to know about these three companies? Well, when you get your one free credit report that is provided to you each year thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you should make sure that you are getting a report that will show you what your credit score is with all three companies. That way, you can make sure that when you go to get credit, you are having them check the credit report of the agency that gives you the highest credit rating. It is also important to check your credit report with all three agencies because one agency may have an error while the others do not. If you have a credit error for an unpaid bill on your TransUnion credit report, but you only check your Experian credit report, you may never realize there is a problem. Then when you attempt to get credit and are refused because they looked at your TransUnion report, you will have no idea why. Hence the reason why you should look at all three credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies so that you can compare them and make sure they match completely.

Staying on top of your credit is very important, and looking at your credit score from all credit bureaus is just as important. Mistakes happen and not everything is the same with credit, so get all the information you can from TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

Have you ever used a Credit or Debit Card? Do you sign the back of your Credit or Debit Card? Have you ever supplied personal information via the internet? Do you keep your Social Security Number in your wallet? Received Mail in your personal mailbox?

If you answer “Yes” to any of these questions (by the way, there are hundreds of questions just like this that I could add to the list), then you could be a potential target of Identity Theft.

If you have read Part One and Part Two of this series, you have seen some basic steps or precautions you can take to help stop Identity Theft.  You have also seen the financial impact that an Identity Theft can have on you, not to mention the amount of time an Identity Theft can cost you.  Hopefully, you will understand that you should treat your Identity the same way you treat your other major assets (home, car, life) and look for a good “insurance policy”.

The fact is that the people who look to steal identities, are countless steps ahead of any “Identity Theft Programs” available.  You have undoubtedly heard countless advertisements for various Identity Theft Solutions.  These solutions tend to portray themselves as stopping identity theft.  The fine print, however, lets you know that NO system is 100% effective.  Most solutions involve placing a “freeze” on your credit account (which is something you could do yourself for free).  More importantly, the vast majority of these solutions only deal with Identity Theft involving “finances”.

As you have hopefully learned by now, Identity Theft involves more than just Financial Identity Theft.  The most advertised solutions do nothing to help with the other forms of Identity Theft.  The premise behind these solutions is for them to simply STOP Identity Theft.  Again, no solution can guarantee this.  If I were to design an Identity Theft Solution there are a few things that I would want to have.

Identity Monitoring (Credit Monitoring, Social Security Number Monitoring, Drivers License Monitoring) Dedicated Identity Restoration Specialist Service that takes the restoration out of my hands

In a nutshell, I want a service that will monitor everything that deals with my Identity and alert me when something suspicious happens.  Should we determine that someone has stolen my identity, or is attempting to steal my identity, then I simply say “go get ‘em and call me when you are done”.

Unfortunately, after reviewing countless Identity Theft Solutions, it seems that the majority of the solutions offer band-aids.  I found two solutions that best fit my criteria for an Identity Theft Solution:

IDwatchdog Identity Theft Shield

While both solutions act in a similar fashion, I do lean more toward the Identity Theft Shield.  The main reason is similar to how I choose any other Insurance Provider.  I look at the track record.  The Identity Theft Shield is a solution from Kroll, Inc.  Kroll is the leading risk management firm on the planet.  In fact, they are the company that was used to track the financial records of Saddam Hussein.  The solution is marketed by Pre-Paid Legal Services.  While there are many people who look down upon Pre-Paid Legal, If you do your research, you will see that they have been in business over 30 years.

Protecting your Identity should be a major concern.  The threat is real.  There are steps that you can take to reduce your exposure, but you should seriously consider purchasing an Insurance Policy for your Identity.

Invisus Direct primarily offers protection against online ID theft, through securing your computer with software which protects you from such predators, and insures you against ID Theft even if it happens in the offline world. If you already have strong PC protection from another software vendor, like McAfee or Norton, or you own a Mac, you may not need the protection that Invisus offers for around $14.99 per month, per computer.

Wells Fargo offers ID Theft protection, with $10,000 in ID Theft insurance to cover the costs of restoring your identity if it is stolen. Like Invisus, the usual suspects are monitored, such as your credit reports etc.

PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc. offers ID Theft protection that monitors your credit report, the use of your Drivers’ License #, your medical records, and your Social Security #. The subscription costs $12.95 per month, but here is where PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc., differs from the other two programs.

With Invisus and Wells Fargo, if your identity is stolen, they provide you with a do-it-yourself pack, which contains form letters that you have to send to every financial organization with whom you have dealings, explaining the theft and attempting to remedy the situation. On average, the amount of time this takes is 600 hours. PrePaid Legal/Kroll have a different solution. You sign over a Limited Power of Attorney to them, and THEY spend the 600 hours sorting out the mess.

From my perspective, this tips the balance in favor of PrePaid Legal/Kroll, Inc., though if computer security is your primary concern, you might also consider Invisus.