Surprisingly the most common methods identity thieves have of obtaining your personal information is by unsophisticated means such as stealing your wallet/handbag or by going through the rubbish for carelessly thrown away documents (bank statements, credit card bills etc), so despite the fact that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world there is actually quite a lot you can do to avoid becoming a victim.
Protect Your Valuables
If you carry around any personal information with you such as credit cards, insurance card [Read More]
Identity Theft Services
Over 15 Million Identity Theft Victims Each Year?
It is said that an identity is stolen every 2 seconds, and the number of identity thefts each year is by no means going to decrease anytime soon. With the loss of jobs recently (2008-2009), more and more people are turning to identity theft to solve their financial needs. Typically, a credit card number is sold for $5 each, and if they manage to amass thousands of numbers, they are in for a ton of money. It is more important than ever today to fight identity theft.
How Do Identity Theft Services Work?
Monitoring your own credit and making sure nothing shady is occurring under your name can be a tricky and time consuming job. That's why many companies have sprouted that offered to do this for you for a low monthly fee. Here are some of the things that they help you do:
1. Gives Fraud Alerts
2. Remove you from junk offer lists
3. Free Credit Reports and Monitoring Services
4. Database Monitoring
5. Credit Card Protection
And the list goes on. You will need to check with the exact service or check out our reviews in order to get a more thorough examination of each service available, since each service offers different services and features at a variety of prices.
What do protect you from?
You can prevent unauthorized new bank accounts opened with your information, stop applications for credit, address changes, public record changes, and you can also eliminate negative marks off your credit report. And, most importantly you save yourself the thousands of dollars that it takes to repair your credit and stop identity theft.
Some services that we recommend are Trusted ID, Lifelock, and ProtectMyID. They are all decent services that offer a wide range of features, so be sure to check them out. They all offer free trials.
It can take years for you to build up a good credit rating, and this will make you eligible for much more competitive credit products and special offers such as low interest loans, mortgages and credit cards. However identity thieves can not only steal money from your existing accounts, but also open new credit accounts falsely in your name that they have no intention of honouring, leaving you with a record of bad debts and non payments on your credit history, destroying the good credit name you have worked so hard to build up for yourself.
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