Identityfraudresources.com

10 Crucial Identity Protection Theft Steps

Identity protection theft or simply, id protection, is very similar to life insurance with one major difference. Neither one can prevent you from being harmed, however they both make things quite a bit easier for your family.

The major difference is, a good identity theft protection package makes life easier for you as well as your family! You can actually benefit from your own investment!

Just so you know, theft of identity directly costs consumers almost half a billion dollars annually. According to a report by the FTC, the average consumer spends 175 hours and $1500 “out-of-pocket” to remedy credit identity theft and other related problems.

The estimated drain on our economy is over $50 billion annually, and you can bet that consumers ( i.e. you), have to bear some of that cost. Since we didn’t have an extra $1500 or 175 hours laying around, we opted for a $0.43/day id theft protection plan.

Now, every time anyone goes near our credit report, we receive an immediate email alert asking us “Did we authorize the activity?” How cool is that?

Id thieves can and do carry out multiple fraud campaigns against victims, sometimes for very extended periods of time. It’s never a one time incident.

Each time you are victimized, the cycle of financial expenditure and wasted time starts anew. Another $1500, another 175 hours. Who’s to dictate how many times a thief will use your social security number, or how many times he or she’ll sell that information?

We obtained this identity protection theft incident from the files of the U.S. Marshal Service. A fugitive drug smuggler by the name of Bannister, jumped bail in 1973 and was finally caught 23 years later, in 1996. He was not only living under someone’s else’s social security number, he was abusing it so often that the owner spent five years trying to correct all the problems he had caused.

Five years of financial, psychological and emotional stress for what? The Marshal Service never said if he was successful in clearing his name. An affordable identity theft fraud protection plan definitely would have mitigated his pain if not cleared his name completely.

Credit Identity Theft Protection and Collection Agencies

Let’s turn our attention to collection agencies. Would you believe that there are still some persistent collection agencies that refuse to clear false records? How about creditors refusing to acknowledge that your poor credit rating was a direct result of online credit report identity theft and not because of your own actions?

They simply increase your fees, interest rates etc anyway. Why you say? Because they can!

Virus protection software and firewalls are essential tools in your fight against ID Crime while surfing online. Also, anti-Phishing and anti-Spam utilities are quickly becoming must haves for anyone wishing to have an online presence today.

Is An Identity Theft Protection Plan Suitable For You?

Investing in low-cost identity theft protection services BEFORE you are victimized, should be a no-brainer, right?

Before you invest however, read the Ten Things a consumer can do to obtain the best identity theft protection. These will cost you absolutely nothing, but could potentially save you a bundle!

Some of these suggestions are so straight forward and obvious that we routinely tend to forget their importance. Now you have another chance to review them with a more critical eye.

If instead, you would like to look over the protection plan we use today, just say so. Okay, we probably won’t hear you. We’ll just provide the link for you to follow here. Use it as a reference only, an introduction so to speak since there are at least a dozen companies claiming to provide a decent measure of id protection. You decide.

Identity Protection Theft in Ten Steps

Step 1: Get a free credit report.

Federal law (Identity Theft Gov) gives you the right to one free credit report each year from the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Order one report each quarter so that you can monitor identity on an ongoing basis. Learn more here: Federal Trade Commission web site at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm.

Step 2: Reduce the number of credit and debit cards you carry in your wallet.

Only carry one or two credit cards and your ATM card in your wallet. Avoid carrying debit cards and never use them to make online purchases.

Step 3: Photocopy all of your important financial documents

For Example, credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts, and investments — the account numbers, expiration dates and telephone numbers of the customer service and fraud departments. Secure this list for easy access in the future, please, not in your pocketbook or wallet!

Step 4: Never give out your SSN, credit or debit card number

or other personal information over the phone, by mail, or on the Internet. This is unless you initiated the contact and you trust the party contacted has some form of identity theft fraud protection in place.

Step 5: Never permit your credit card number to be written onto your checks.

It’s a violation of the laws of many states, and puts you at serious risk. And besides, who still uses credit cards as identification cards anymore?

Step 6: Always use virus protection software and firewalls when surfing online.

It cannot be stressed enough how many new viruses and other malware surfaces each day, every day! Use the software that has Identity Theft Protection built into it!

Step 7: PINS and passwords

Use your imagination when creating these. Never use the most obvious things such as the last four digits of your Social Security number, mother’s maiden name, your birth date, middle name etc. These are easy to figure out.

Use random letters and numbers. Intersperse capital letters and don’t forget to use the period and the characters above the numbers on your keyboard. This is acceptable to most programs. Write it down before you enter it into the program.

Step 8: Remove your name from junk mail lists.

This is an effective way to initiate identity protection, and also to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. To be removed from mail, e-mail, and telephone marketing lists, visit the Direct Marketing Association website. Please bear in mind, spammers don’t play by the rules and therefore you cannot opt-out of a spammers list.

Step 9: Track your financial transactions.

Reconcile check, credit card, and other account statements immediately upon receipt. All businesses or financial institutions must be notified of mistakes as they happen. Do this for all of your bills, including utility and telephone.

In addition, write down the approximate date these bills arrive and inform the company immediately when they are more than two or three days late.

Step 10: Where is your social security card?

If you still carry your social security number in your wallet or pocketbook, take it out and lock it away in a secure location at home. And, no, the top shelf over the computer is definitely not secure! Place it in a locked safe.

Okay, we have listed the Top Ten Free Things that we feel a person can do right away to implement a good identity protection theft program. Do understand, there are many more steps you can take. We discuss some of these in related articles.