With time there is a growing number of people falling prey to Identity Theft cases. With so much digital information flowing Identity Theft has become the third certainty in life, right behind death and taxes.
Let us look at some terrifying facts and figures from NCJRS and IBM for the year 2014-15.
- Of the complaints received by FTC and other organizations like FBI in 2014, identity theft accounted for 14% of all complaints
- About 7% of people aged 16 or older were victims of identity theft in 2014-15.
- More than one billion records were leaked in 2014 alone.
- Every minute about 19 people fall victim to identity theft.
Scared? You should be, because these cases are real and you are not immune to it.
But you don’t need to live in a constant state of paranoia. Hire an Identity Theft Protection company and leave it to the experts. Lifelock Identity Theft Protection Company is the natural choice for most users.
Let us look at some reasons for you to hire a dedicated ID Theft Protection company:
Protection of wide ranging personal information
Most well-built Identity Theft Protection Services provide the protection of following information:
- Lost/stolen wallet Protection-You can never predict such a misfortune. You must have control to cancel all the debit/credit, Social Security, insurance cards etc before it is misused.
- Child ID Protection- Your under age child’s personal information needs to be cushioned against unlawful use in the future
- Medical Identity Theft Protection- After reports of exponential rise in Medical Identity Theft, leading ID Theft Protection services are embedding this tool in their programs.
Alerts- Remedial and Preventive
All the Identity Theft Protection Services provide alerts to notify users of foul play and take remedial actions.
- Identity Theft Alert- You must be aware and alerted as soon as possible in case your personal information is misused on social media or any other website.
- Alert for transactions made in your name- Some extremely well built services alert users if their personal information crops up in insurance or loan transactions fraudulently.
- Address Change Verification- One of the most popular method of stealing someone’s Identity is to redirect the Personal Information to a fraudulent new address. The service notifies you in case such an attempt is made.
Monitoring Vast Trough of Websites
In such huge Digital Network, ID theft Protection Company checks multitudes of websites for traces of your personal information
- Illegal trading of Personal information- People’s personal information is widely bought and sold at huge prices in black market. A good Identity Theft Protection company monitors the dark web to prevent your information.
- Public records and legal transactions- A robust ID Theft protection company monitors Govt. records and transactions which are made in your name.
- Social Media and other platforms- A fake social media profile is a common occurrence and most of the readers might have faced it. It is utmost important to check these websites for misuse of personal information.
Protect and Monitor credit Records
Some ID theft protection services allow users to log into their accounts and check credit scores and reports to inspect unfair and illegal use of funds in your name.
- Lifelock ensures removal of its client’s ID from any pre-approved credit mailing list.
- Some companies also continually monitor the connected accounts and credit cards for SIGNS of fraudulent activity.
Miscellaneous
- Removal of your ID from promotional or spamming mailing list, preventing the spread of your email id
- In some cases the Identity Theft Protection Company takes care of the insurance claims in case of a data breach.
- Court records scanning. Some extremely well built ID theft protection companies scan legal records regularly to prevent any false charge to be made in your name.
