Identity Theft Protection is becoming more important since identity theft is one of the fastest growing forms of crime in the US, which as many as nine million Americans fall victim to identity theft each and every year. Identity theft happens when the identity thieves obtain your personal identifying information and uses it to apply for credit cards, obtain loans, or use other ways to access money. They then use these methods to obtain cash or buy goods and services. The personal identifying information that you must protect are things such as social security number and or driver’s license information.

Identity thieves can gain access to your personal information through a variety of methods such as going through your mail, impersonating you, stealing your information through illegal internet methods such as viruses, hoaxes, and phishing. Being careful is the first step. Always do thing such as shredding documents containing personal and financial information that you are throwing away, and being careful to whom you give your personal information in person, on the phone, or on the internet. Also, be sure you have proper virus protection and internet security software installed and updated on your computers.

Since the methods to steal your identity information is widely varied, we also strongly recommend one of our identity theft protection solutions. They will proactively protect your identity by placing fraud alerts on your credit files so that credit companies and lenders must get your personal confirmation for opening up any new accounts or loans. They will also reduce your junk mailings since that is a major avenue of identity theft. They each come with at least a $1,000,000 identity recovery guarantee and access to your credit report. Some of them will even monitor black market channels to ensure that your personal information is not being sold into the hands of criminals.

To browse and compare different identity theft protection services, Use Our Comparison Matrix of Identity Protection Solutions.

You may also opt to protect yourself through credit monitoring services. Credit monitoring services will watch over your credit history files with all three credit bureaus and alert you if there is any change to them (within 24 hours). This is the easiest way to spot mistakes as soon as possible as well as spot evidence of fraudulent activity if a credit account is being opened without your knowledge or permission. Credit monitoring services will often also have services to educate you about credit score, how to improve them, and other financial planning tools.

To browse and compare different credit monitoring services, Use Our Comparison Matrix of Credit Report and Monitoring Solutions.