411 Bliss

Research shows that 10 million individuals will become a victim of identity theft this year. Chances are you too will become a victim of identity theft unless you are aware of the ways your identity can be stolen. Once you know how your identity can be stolen, you will be able to defend yourself against becoming a victim. Therefore, your first line of defense is knowing a thief’s offense. The following are six ways you your identity can be stolen.

First, your identity can easily be stolen if you have lost or had your wallet stolen. Once a thief has obtained personal information from a driver’s license, social security card or other identifying information found in your wallet, they will often open credit card and utility accounts in your name. They will also charge large amounts of merchandise on your credit cards. Thieves will also use your identity when applying for jobs in order to use your background to pass criminal screenings.

The second way your identity can be stolen is by becoming comfortable with your day to day activities and your surroundings. Letting your guard down concerning your paper trail, especially your financial paper trails, is one way for thieves to access your personal information. Identity theft crimes are more likely to occur by someone you know or who you feel comfortable with. For example, if you employ someone who works in your home, such as a housekeeper, you need to be sure that your personal papers are kept in a secure location within your home. Be aware of who you perceive to be trustworthy before you allow them access to your home or personal records.

Another way thieves can access your personal information is by scouring dumpsters or trash cans and to find receipts from financial institutions or pre-approved credit card applications. Thieves then use this information to create counterfeit checks or open credit card accounts in your name. Mailboxes are also locations where thieves can steal checks, bank statements and other financial documents before you ever know they are missing. Monitoring your incoming and outgoing paper mail and shredding all financial documents before trashing them is crucial to protecting your identity.

A fourth way your identity can be stolen is through telemarketing phishing scams. Thieves call and pretend to be an employee of a popular company, such as Kmart, and fabricate a problem with your most recent payment. Most people fall for this type of scam by providing the caller with personal and financial information. Identity theft also occurs on-line through social websites. Be careful not to tell others too much about yourself as identity thieves are great at using any tidbit of personal information to take over your identity.

The fifth way thieves steal your identity is by watching your actions at ATM’s. Thieves are literally looking over your shoulder and stealing your information. You should always be aware of your surroundings when using automated teller machines. Thieves look to see what numbers you type in when entering your pin. They then follow you, wait for a chance to get your ATM receipt, and then gain access to your bank account.

The final way to have your identity stolen is to, quite simply, fail to put protective measures in place to keep thieves from gaining access to your personal information. It doesn’t matter whether you purchase identity theft protection services or put your own steps in place to protect your identity, the fact that you are not protected will leave you susceptible to having your identity stolen.

Knowing how your identity can be stolen enables you to know how to keep from being one of the 10 million individuals who will have their identity stolen this year. It is important to become aware of how thieves can access your personal information in order to put protective measures in place.

It’s a heavy burden to bear when someone has stolen your identity and ruined your credit. The time and effort involved in restoring your credit and good name can bring you to the point of pure frustration and exhaustion. Luckily there are several identity theft protection companies available to consumers that can take the worry and burden out of protecting one’s identity. Choosing the right company, however, can be almost as burdensome as having your identity stolen. When it comes to choosing the right identity theft protection company for you and your family, it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each provider before choosing a company with which to place your trust. LifeLock, an identity theft protection company, has been protecting their member’s identities for years and the pros of using LifeLock have greatly outweighed the cons.

Pro number One: When comparing LifeLock with other identity theft protection services, LifeLock immediately stands out from the crowd by offering child identity protection services. No other identity theft protection service offers credit checks and monitoring services for children under the age of 15. With the increase in the number of child identity thefts occurring, LifeLock has hit the mark when it comes to this number one pro.

Another pro of LifeLock is that LifeLock works to prevent identity theft. While most companies provide identity theft monitoring services, LifeLock’s services are proactive in preventing identity theft from occurring in the first place. LifeLock’s identity prevention services include detecting when a member’s address has been illegally changed in national databases through their TrueAddress services; placing fraud alerts on your credit files; and monitoring the internet for black market activity regarding the illegal use of credit card numbers and social security numbers through their eRecon services.

A further pro of using LifeLock services is that LifeLock reduces the amount of access thieves have to your personal information by stopping pre-approved credit card offers that come in the mail and curtailing the number of telemarketing calls received. Stealing identifying information from your mail box or trash is a popular way for identity thieves to steal your personal information, not to mention using Pretexting scams to gather your credit card information by phone. LifeLock not only prevents identity theft by reducing the amount of access thieves have to your personal information; they also reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. Who wouldn’t count that as a pro!

The only con that LifeLock may be considered to have is that they do not perform daily scans of a member’s credit report. LifeLock does pull credit reports annually and mails them to their members for review; however, some individuals may not think this occurs often enough. Keep in mind though, since LifeLock places fraud alerts on their members credit files, any unauthorized request for credit or loans will be discovered almost immediately.

Pro number four: With LifeLock’s $1,000,000 total service guarantee, no one will lose time, energy, money and effort in fighting to restore their good name and repair their credit report. LifeLock guarantees that they will provide attorneys, investigators, accountants, case managers, etc. to restore your good name and, if you lose money as a result of the theft, they will reimburse you the amount lost.

When deciding which identity theft protection company is the right one for you and your family, it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each services provider. With several pros and hardly a con, LifeLock’s identity theft protection services will certainly meet your identity theft prevention needs, and then some. Unfortunately, identity theft is always going to occur. Fortunately, there’s LifeLock.

When it comes down to it, if time equals money, then nothing is free when it comes to protecting your identity. Although the federal government has made it possible for each citizen to protect their identity, many individuals do not realize that they must request these “free” services on a continuous basis. When taking into account the amount of time it takes to repeatedly request these “free” services, “free” can easily turn into thousands of dollars of financial ruin and thousands of hours spent trying to restore one’s good name and credit. Fortunately, though, there is an economic way to protect your identity and prevent identity theft through a company called LifeLock. LifeLock’s Identity Theft Prevention services can help you protect your identity and prevent identity theft in six valuable ways.

1. Fraud Alerts - LifeLock helps to protect your identity by requesting Fraud Alerts for you every 90 days. A fraud alert is a “flag” placed on your credit report that notifies a lender that they must, among other things, verify your identity before issuing a credit card or loan. If a LifeLock member has difficulty in obtaining credit because of a fraud alert on their credit account, LifeLock will contact the credit issuer for the member and clear up any concerns about the alert.

2. Do Not Call or Mail Lists - Another way to protect your identity from being stolen is by removing your name from solicitation lists such as pre-approved credit card mailing lists and telemarketing lists. Although this can be done by anyone for free, this must be done on an annual basis. LifeLock takes the worry out of keeping up with the various numbers to call and places to write to have your name removed from solicitation lists each year by actively removing your name from such lists on an annual basis.

3. Credit Reports - LifeLock protects your identity by ordering your free credit reports from the credit bureaus, on your behalf, and sending these directly to you. This way you can check to see if you have had any unauthorized loans or credit cards opened in your name.

4. WalletLock - If you really want to protect your identity, don’t lose your wallet. Of course, that is easier said than done. If you have ever lost your wallet, chances are you have experienced a sense of fear and panic and thought, “What was in my wallet and how do I stop someone from using my credit cards?” With LifeLock’s WalletLock system, there is no need to feel fear or panic if you lose your wallet. Through WalletLock you will be able to identify what was in your wallet and will be assigned a WalletLock specialist who will help you contact each credit card company, banking institution, and any state and federal agencies who issue driver’s licenses, etc. to cancel the accounts and to begin the process of reinstating missing documents.

5. Identity Monitoring - With LifeLock’s eRecon and TrueAddress systems, potential identity theft threats are detected and eliminated through searching criminal websites and nationwide databases. eRecon protects your identity through searching criminal websites for the selling or trading of your social security number, credit card numbers, driver’s license number, email address, etc. and notifies you if such use is discovered. TrueAddress works by detecting any change of address information in relation to your name that occurs on nationwide databases. You will be alerted if a criminal tries to steal your mail or obtain your financial information by attempting to change your address. LifeLock also ensures that thieves do not open new bank accounts in a subscriber’s name by monitoring check systems.

6. Recovering Your Identity - Because criminals find ways around the system, preventing identity theft is not always fool-proof. Because of this, LifeLock offers a $1,000,000 total service guarantee that if someone happens to discover a weakness in their system and uses it to steal your identity, they will provide attorneys, investigators, accountants, case managers, etc. to restore your good name and, if you lose money as a result of the theft, LifeLock will reimburse you the amount of money lost. Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, has even been quoted as saying “If you get thrown in jail [because of identity theft], we’ll bail you out of jail.”

There are ways to protect your identity which will only cost you in terms of time and effort; however, there is no guarantee that you will recover your money and good name if your identity is stolen. LifeLock’s Identity Protection services offer six ways to save you time and effort in protecting your identity, preventing identity theft, and guaranteeing to recover your money and restore your good name if your identity is stolen.