ID theft hits a little too close to home

Posted by Joe on December 18th, 2007

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We have been covering identity theft prevention services for months here at NextAdvisor so I was well aware that it was the fastest growing crime in the United States with well over 10 million Americans falling victim each year. That didn’t make it any less surprising when my wife realized over the weekend that she had been the victim of credit card fraud - the largest segment of identity theft related crimes according to the FTC.

We regularly review our credit card statements for any suspicious activity. So, thankfully, she identified the several hundred dollars in false charges immediately and was able to report them to our credit card company before any additional charges or more serious identity theft could be perpetrated.

Needless to say, the first thing that she did after she had notified the credit card company was sign up for an identity theft prevention service. She selected LifeLock because she liked the idea of their proactive “preventative” services as well as the simple sign up process.

We already strongly encourage our readers to use an identity theft prevention service and even more so now that my family has been victimized. Our editors have reviewed several of the leading identity theft prevention services. Check out our comparison and choose the program that is right for you.

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• Reader Question: How can LifeLock help me if I have already been a victim of identity theft?
• LifeLock selected as exclusive id theft prevention service for a variety financial firms
• WalletLock takes the worry out of losing your wallet