Identity Theft is the deliberate and fraudulent use of someone else’s identity and personal data which involves cheating or deception in one way or another, typically for economic gains. Due to widespread use of Internet and its allied services protection from identity theft has become more important than ever and use of a dedicated identity theft protection services like Lifelock has become absolutely inevitable.
What does an identity theft protection service defend?
An Identity Theft Protection service must at least be able to shield the basic information like:
Name
Address
Bank Accounts
Credit/Debit Cards information
Loans and other transactions
Bills and Public Records
Social Security Number
How does an Identity Theft Protection service grant Safeguard?
A well built Identity Theft Protection application must have these primary features to preserve the above mentioned details:
Lost/stolen wallet Protection- If because of some misfortune you happen to lose your wallet, the service must be able to cancel all the debit/credit, Social Security and insurance cards along with the checkbooks and driver’s license as soon as possible.
Identity Theft Alert- With the expansive world of Internet your service must be able to monitor and alert you in case your personal information is misused on social media or other activities involving legal (illegal) transactions.
Alert for transactions made in your name- Some companies also monitor information about the loans, insurance and transactions made in your name. If the transaction is fraudulent an alert is sent to the user.
Alert for illegal trading of Personal information- Most people don’t know this but people’s personal information is bought and sold online at startling prices. The service must be able to check trading of your personal Information in black market.
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 must be able to notify you in case such an attempt is made.
Additional, but important features
There are many Identity Theft Protection companies which provide additional features apart from the ones mentioned above. Some of these additional features are indeed impressive and increase the worth of an Identity Theft Protection application by multitudes:
Child ID Protection- Your under age child’s personal information needs to be cushioned against unlawful use in the future
Credit score and report Monitoring- Some ID theft protection services allow users to log into their accounts and check credit scores and reports to check unfair and illegal use of funds in your name.
Warning Alerts- It is always good to be safe than sorry. It would be extremely useful to people if the Identity Theft Protection company sends you an alert when suspicious activity is monitored
Mailing List Removal– There are marketers who broadcast spam mails to a wide user base, spreading your Email ID in the process. One must be able to remove his ID from the mailing list.
Medical Identity Theft Protection- After reports of exponential rise in Medical Identity Theft leading IDTheft Protection services are embedding this tool in their programs.
Bottomline
With numbers of Identity Theft cases soaring by the minute, the need for a Identity Theft Protection is becoming critical. It is highly recommended to use such application to prevent misuse of personal information which can be very damaging to you, personally and professionally.
