Identity Theft Report

After my identity was stolen I did a lot of research on identity theft and decided to share the information I have gathered with others. I hope I can help you keep your personal information more secure.

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Credit Monitoring vs Identity Monitoring

If you haven't noticed by now, there is a lot of talk about monitoring your credit when it comes to identity theft protection. There are some companies, however, that don't offer any sort of credit monitoring services and instead focus on identity monitoring. For many people, this leads to some questions, like: Is credit monitoring less important than identity monitoring? Do I need to have both to be fully protected from identity thieves? Is there anything I can do myself to limit the

Click to read more about the differences in identity & credit monitoring!

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What Exactly is Credit Card Fraud?

[caption id="attachment_1437" align="alignright" width="300"] Stopping fraud is as easy as starting at StopFraud.gov.[/caption] Credit fraud targets people of all ages and walks of life. Victims are lured in with false promises of significant cash prizes, goods, services, or good works, in exchange for up-front fees, taxes or donations. Sometimes, however, it isn't an extravagant method of obtaining your information that works for an identity thief committing credit fraud. Sometimes credit

Click here to learn more about credit fraud!

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What Exactly is Credit Card Fraud?

[caption id="attachment_1437" align="alignright" width="300"] Stopping fraud is as easy as starting at StopFraud.gov.[/caption] Credit fraud targets people of all ages and walks of life. Victims are lured in with false promises of significant cash prizes, goods, services, or good works, in exchange for up-front fees, taxes or donations. Sometimes, however, it isn't an extravagant method of obtaining your information that works for an identity thief committing credit fraud. Sometimes credit

Click here to learn more about credit fraud!

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Child Identity Theft Statistics Are Alarming

I've got 3 kids of my own. Two of them just experienced that dreaded first day of a new school year and one has just recently made an appearance in this world. If you've got kids of your own, then you understand the meaning behind my statement that they mean the world to me. I would do anything for them. Yet many of us, as parents, don't even give a second thought to the idea that identity thieves might actually go after our children instead of us. After all, we're the adults. We have the

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Identity Force

Identity Force is an industry leader in providing full-circle, proactive identity theft protection for individuals, businesses, and government agencies. Their solution to identity theft is simple, easy-to-use, and guaranteed to work. Identity Force was launched in 2005 as a response to the dramatic increase in identity theft crimes in the United States. They are a division of Bearak Reports, Inc., who are themselves industry leaders in background screening and asset search services since 1992. Identity Force is effective because they draw on the extensive expertise found in the 20 years of information verification services in order to provide a complete and proven approach to

Read more about how you can secure your identity today with Identity Force!

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ID Theft Prevention Tool: Crosscut Shredders

When it comes to your identity, you can never really play it too safe. That principle applies in many aspects of identity theft protection, but most especially when it comes to your disposal of personally identifying documents, expired credit cards, and even backup CDs or DVDs that contain personal information. These items contain the keys identity thieves need to unlock your identity and use it to commit fraud. The first and most obvious thing you can do is to simply file these items away in a locked and safe place in your home. A good rule of thumb is to keep seven years of your records anyway for tax purposes, so you should be keeping quite a bit of these items already. But let's say

Read More About Cross-Cut Shredders for ID Theft Prevention...

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Identity Theft Protection: Do-It-Yourself and Use the Service When You Must

Identity theft is a growing problem these days with the advent of the electronic age and the fact that so many of our financial activities and records are kept online. There is a myriad of ways the identity thief uses our personal information. He can get credit, a job, and a home all posing as someone he is not.

Identity Theft Protection Services

Identity theft protection services are businesses that use their resources and expertise to provide a level of protection that you couldn’t do otherwise. For example, one way to detect identity theft is to look at your credit report and see if any fraudulent accounts have been opened on it. Yes, you can do this yourself but can you do it quarterly and do you really know what to look for? What if you forget to do it quarterly? Did you know that you have to pay beyond the first free credit report each year?

Identity theft protection services monitor your credit report on a regular cycle. The experts they have on staff have years of experience in detecting the warning signals that this crime is about to happen. The best identity theft protection services offer to send you SMS or email messages when it detects something is not right. And, would you know the most efficient way to initiate a credit freeze should one of these events be detected? A good identity theft protection service knows exactly how to handle this situation quickly and efficiently.

DIY Document Protection

You don’t necessarily need an identity theft protection service to guard your personal papers and mail at home. What you do need is a good shredder and safe or lock box. For example, if you have a master list of all your online passwords, this should be locked up in your safe—not posted on your monitor. All it takes is for a burglary to occur and the thief could boost his take on the crime by selling your password list to his buddy who is an identity thief.

DIY Password Protection

Do-it-yourself password protection is not only about locking up your passwords. It is also about choosing good passwords that cannot be cracked by a hacker looking to sell your information to an identity thief. Password protection is actually simple and you should follow two basic rules. First, create passwords that are a combination of random letters and numbers at a length of 6-8 characters. Second, don’t use the same password for every website you are registered on.

Be Suspicious

When you are out and about visiting ATMs or shopping with your debit card, always look around to see who is watching you. Identity thieves like to look over your shoulder and get your debit or credit card number along with expiration date and sell it on the black market. Never give your credit card information to anyone over the phone unless you call them first and always report a lost or missing card immediately. Through a combination of identity theft protection services and do-it-yourself measures you can reduce your risk of ever becoming a statistic of this crime.