Protect Your Identity

Early detection of a potential identity theft can make a big difference. Keep an eye out for any suspicious activity by routinely monitoring:

Your Financial Statements.

Monitor your financial accounts and billing statements regularly, looking closely for charges you did not make.

Your Credit Reports

Credit reports contain information about you, including what accounts you have and how you pay your bills. The law requires each of the major nationwide consumer reporting agencies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. To find out, order a copy of your credit reports.

Once you get your reports, review them carefully. Look for inquiries from companies you haven’t contacted, accounts you didn’t open, and debts on your accounts that you can’t explain. Check that information, like your Social Security number, address(es), name or initials, and employers are correct. If you find fraudulent or inaccurate information, get it removed. See Correcting Fraudulent Information in Credit Reports to learn how.

Continue to check your credit reports periodically, especially for the first year after you discover the identity theft, to make sure no new fraudulent activity has occurred.

Everyone wants to know how does LifeLock work? I know that LifeLock guarantees that they can protect my identity from being stolen, but what is the process? How is it possible that LifeLock can stand behind their identity theft protection service with a $1,000,000 Service Guarantee and only charge $10 per month?

First of all, LifeLock asks the credit bureaus to set fraud alerts on your behalf through their automated systems (the alerts are set within an hour). This allows for immediate protection against identity theft. Then every 90 days or so they ask the credit bureaus to do it again.

Next LifeLock requests that your name be removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists and continues making the requests as they expire.

Getting rid of the pre-approved credit card lists may be worth the money in and of itself. Think about it - if you never received the credit card offers in the mail would you have ever applied for that card? I know I wouldn’t. So I guess LifeLock kind of protects us from ourselves.

For more information visit www.lifelock.com