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Identity Theft Protection Services
Frequently Asked Questions about Identity Theft Protection Services.




Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. The FTC estimates that 9 million Americans have their identity stolen each year. ID theft occurs when thiefs use your personal information (such as social security number or driver's license number) to gain access to money, credit or goods and services in your name. Since your name is used for these activities, companies come to you seeking repayment of the money or goods that were illegally obtained. While legally you do not owe anything, it can often be difficult to prove this and it can take months and even years to get everything straightened out, costing you a huge amount of time and resources. In the meantime, you can be left with no access to credit as credit card companies, banks, utilities (phone, cell phone, tv) and other financial institutions can cut off your credit accounts until your good name is restored. Many people have actually been arrested and jailed (some multiple times) because an identity thief committed crimes in their name.

Identity thieves can get access to your personal information in myriad different ways. These include:

  • Stealing mail
  • Copying down or taking pictures of your information in a retail transaction
  • Data breaches at companies that have your information
  • Stolen wallets or purses
  • Documents thrown in the trash by you or a business that has your information (dumpster diving)
  • Computer viruses
  • Phishing
  • Intercepting data form insecure networks or sites
  • Overhearing or hacking into phone conversations
  • Pretexting, meaning use false pretenses to get your personal information from companies that have it (financial institutions, utilities, etc.)
  • Changing your address through a change of address form in order to divert billing statements from your home to an address the thief controls
Identity thieves continue to come up with new ways to benefit from your stolen identity. The most common thing an identity thief does is open up a new account in your name. This can be a credit card account, a bank account which they then use to write bad checks, a phone or wireless phone account, or a utility account such as heat, electricity or television. The thief then racks up charges in your name and never pays them, leaving creditors to come after you. Another common tactic is to take out a loan in your name for something like a car or even a house. Identity thieves also commonly use your identity in dealings with the government. The purpose of this can vary from receiving benefits in your name (such as social security, or even a tax refund) to avoiding prosecution by giving police your information when arrested! Of course, when you don't show for the court date, a warrant is then issued for your arrest!! We could go on and on, but suffice it to say, there are hundreds of ways for an identity thief to benefit from using your personal information.
Signing up for one of our recommended services is the best way. Each service is different and different ones may be best for different people. Some services, such as LifeLock and TrustedID are what we call "preventive" services, meaning they are great for preventing ID theft before it can happen. Other services, such as Identity Guard are what we call "detection" services, which mean that they detect that someone is trying to steal your identity and help you catch it before it harms you, but they don't try to prevent it altogether. See "What type of identity theft protection is right for me?" for help on which type of solution you should get. In addition to signing up for one of our recommended services, there are many things you can do to help prevent identity theft:

Carefully monitor your credit report for any suspicious activity (many of our recommended ID theft services do this, as do all of our recommended credit monitoring services.)
Always shred documents containing personal or financial information.
Only put your name on your checks - don't put social security number, address or even phone number.
If you do receive preapproved credit offers (many of our recommended services stop these from being mailed to you), make sure you destroy them.
Don't carry your social security number, birth certificate or passport in your wallet.
Don't mail anything from your personal mailbox unless it has a lock.
Carefully review all monthly financial statements (credit cards, bank accounts) to be sure there is no fraudulent activity.
Never give out personal information over the phone unless you are absolutely sure to whom you are speaking.
Never give yout personal information on the internet unless you are absolutely sure you are on a trustworthy site.
Do not click links from emails to get to an online account - it may be a fake email directing you to a counterfeit site (phishing). If you think the email is legitimate, type in the web address of your account yourself.
"Preventive" identity theft protection services, like TrustedID and LifeLock, are a very strong form of identity theft protection. Both place a fraud alert on all of your credit files (TrustedID allows you the additional and more extreme option of placing a "credit freeze" on your credit files) which means anyone opening a credit account for you must make an extra effort to confirm your identity, which usually means calling you to confirm you opened the account. We recommend this type of service for most people that are concerned about identity theft, but it does come with some drawbacks. Mainly, it makes it a bit harder to open credit accounts as you must first wait to be contacted by the new account grantor, which can sometimes take as long as a few days or longer if the grantor can't connect with you. For those who want to take a less extreme approach or who also want to have the benefit of keeping close tabs on their credit reports and scores, one of the "detection" type of services we recommend is a great approach. These are credit monitoring services that monitor your credit file ("credit monitoring"), as well as the internet black market, for any unusual activity occurring in your name. They also give you regular updates of your credit reports and credit scores. While detection of something means that your information has already fallen into the wrong hands, it almost always occurs before the situation has become a more serious problem and it is not as difficult to deal with. A "detection" service is good for someone who opens credit accounts often but is not overly concerned with identity theft.
If you are a member of one of our recommended identity theft services, call your service provider immediately and they will help you handle the situation. Similarly, if you are a member of one of our recommended credit monitoring services, call your service and they will help you take care of the situation. If you have not subscribed to one of our recommended services, visit the FTC's site for instructions.
A fraud alert requires each of the three credit bureaus, Exerian, Equifax and TransUnion, to use "reasonable policies and procedures" to verify your identity before opening an account in your name. This usually means that they will call you and check whether you did indeed request for any new accounts to be opened. An initial fraud alert remains on your account for 90 days and thus must be re-requested every 90 days if you want to continute to have this protection. Two of our recommended ID Theft services, LifeLock and TrustedID will automatically request and re-request Fraud Alerts for you every 90 days.
Some, but not all states allow you to place a Credit Freeze with the three credit bureaus. This means that no new creditors will be able to access your credit report for any reason. Any new account that you or a potential identity theft try to open will simply not be opened. In order to place this freeze, there is usually a fee that must be paid to each credit reporting agency that is about $10. So to completely freeze your credit would cost $30. If you actually do want to obtain credit, you must unfreeze your credit, which may also have a cost associated with it. Then to freeze it incurs a charge again. Obviously this is not very convenient but if you are currently a victim of identity theft or recently had personal information stolen, it may be a good option. TrustedID, one of our recommended services, provides an easy, automated way to freeze and unfreeze your credit.

We thoroughly test and research all the services in the category. We order each and every service ourselves and test out every feature available. We contact customer service and cancel and reorder each service to make sure that process works as well. After our initial tests, we continue to use all the services and update our reviews as situations change. We also monitor the providers' sites for any service changes or specials. In addition, we research each provider by reading all news and ordering and reading third-party research reports. We only include providers on our site that we believe offer a good value proposition. If there is a provider you know of that is not on our site, you can be fairly certain we did not rate that provider highly enough to include in our comparison. If you think we are missing a quality provider or have any other suggestions or comments, please visit our contact us page.