Tag Archive for: Identity Theft Protection

Identity Theft Services: Is ID Theft Monitoring Worth the $$$?

Product Review: Are identity theft monitoring services worth it?

Yes, identity theft services can be well worth the investment, especially if you ever become a victim. Imagine that your Social Security number is part of a national breach like Anthem or the Office of Personnel Management. Or it’s stolen out of your tax preparer’s office, scavenged from your trash or skimmed from your iPad as you surf on a free Wi-Fi connection. In most cases, you have no idea that your digital identity has fallen into unethical hands, usually those of organized crime, who replicate and resell it in seconds.

Next, your identity is used by an undocumented worker to get a job, and now you owe taxes on their earnings. A second user applies for credit in your name and skips town, leaving behind your decimated credit score. Another uses your SSN to drain your health insurance benefits and append the wrong blood type to your medical file. You have no idea that any of this is taking place behind the scenes until the day that the tax bill arrives in the mail, you are denied medical coverage and a collection agency shows up at your door. Because the discovery process doesn’t happen for an average of 18 months after the initial theft, your losses are substantial and your innocence difficult to prove. Obviously, I’ve combined many forms of ID theft here into a single scenario, but everyone of them is real and common.

If I told you that there are ways to automatically detect the exposure of  your SSN online (allowing you to request its removal), to prevent the trafficking of your ID on the dark side of the web and to be notified about even the smallest use of your credit profile by criminals, would you be interested?

Every one of these preventative measures is possible, and detecting the abuse of your identity is made much more convenient and less time consuming by identity theft services that monitor your ID online. Are they a perfect solution? There is no such thing as a perfect solution, and if someone says there is, they are working too hard to sell you something. The key to protecting your identity is to layer on many forms of prevention and detection, thus persuading the criminal to move on to another target. One key layer is provided by identity monitoring services.

Monitoring your identity is much like installing a burglar alarm to protect your home – it’s a no-brainer if you are willing to invest a little to attain much more peace of mind. The most common question I get asked after my speaking engagements is which service I use personally. I have to say, despite their clever marketing, I am not a huge fan of the most popular providers, because they promise too much and deliver fewer tools than some of the better options. The identity theft services provided by the credit card companies are even more limited and less effective. I recommend doing your homework and comparing the different features of the various services.

Here are some features you’ll want your identity theft service to include:

  1. Convenience: The identity theft monitoring service should email you any time a red flag appears (changes to your credit, mailing address, bank accounts, loans, etc.) , so that you don’t have to do any extra work to keep track of your identity.
  2. Depth of Monitoring: Utilize a company that monitors your credit report at all three credit reporting bureaus (a tri-bureau report), which is vital, because the bureaus often don’t share information as much as they claim to share.
  3. Cyber-Agent Scanning: If you are worried about your private information being circulated in criminal chat rooms, carding sites, newsgroups and other digital venues where cyber criminals buy, sell and trade your data, make sure your product scans known rogue sites and alerts you to problems.
  4. Breadth of Reporting: Your identity monitoring service should also scan non-credit loan applications in case someone is using your identity to run a pay-day loan scheme.
  5. Public Document Surveillance: Your service should monitor your public records on the internet (court documents, legal agency filings) in case your information is published for any reason by the government or your Social Security number is found in public records.
  6. Restoration Services: It is vital that the identity theft monitoring service you choose provides restoration and repair if your identity is stolen. In fact, this is probably the most useful and effective part of the monitoring services, as it makes it much easier to recover from ID theft if you are a victim.
  7. Dashboard Access: I like the services that provide one easy to monitor dashboard across all aspects of your identity – that way, if something is a threat, you see it with a big red warning sign.

If a company promises you identity theft services or credit monitoring for free, run the other direction. Like anything else, identity theft services are an investment, and paying nothing means you are getting nothing other than having your name and valuable information sold to other marketers. Remember, you are protecting a digital asset (your identity) that is worth more than all of your bank accounts, mortgages, investments and net worth combined. Spending a little to save a lot is like immunizing yourself against the disease of identity theft before it strikes.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Sileo Identity Theft Prevention & Online Privacy Checklist

Identity theft prevention is not a one-time solution. You must accumulate layers of privacy and security over time. The following identity theft prevention tips are among those I cover in one of my keynote speeches.

  1. Review your Free Credit Report 3X per year at www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
  2. Opt-Out of financial junk mail.
  3. Stop Marketing Phone Calls at www.DoNotCall.gov.
  4. Freeze Your Credit. State-by-state instructions at www.Sileo.com/2.
  5. If you don’t want to use a credit freeze, place Fraud Alerts on your 3 credit files.
  6. Use sophisticated Identity Monitoring software to detect theft before it’s disastrous.
  7. Stop Sharing Identity (SSN, address, phone, credit card #s) unless necessary.
  8. Protect Your Wallet or Purse. Watch this video.
  9. Protect Your Computer and Online Identity. Privacy Means Profit
  10. Protect your Laptop. Visit www.Sileo.com/laptop-anti-theft for details.
  11. Bank Online: online bank statements, account alerts and bill-pay.
  12. Buy a Shredder (or 2) & shred everything with identity you don’t need.
  13. Minimize Social Networking Exposure. Privacy Means Profit
  14. Lock down your Social Networking Profiles www.Sileo.com/facebook-safety.
  15. Realize that approximately 50% of the worst ID theft crimes are committed by Acquaintances & Friends.
  16. Set up two-factor authentication with your bank.
  17. Stop Clicking on Links in emails and social networking posts that you don’t recognize as legitimate.
  18. Avoid emails/faxes/letters/calls/people promising Something for Nothing.
  19. Know that protecting Other People’s Privacy is part of your responsibility.
  20. For more tools, purchase a copy of John’s Latest Book on Information Survival, Privacy Means Profit.
  21. Subscribe to The Sileo Report eNewsletter and follow John’s Blog.
  22. Consider bringing John Sileo to speak to your organization on identity theft, cyber crime, social engineering, social media exposure and other topics of information exposure.

How to Opt Out of Data Miners and Online Directories

Whether you like it or not, your information is available publicly to everyone through online directories. Businesses and advertisers have the ability to easily find this information and then market their products to you. This means that you have never actually “opted-in” to receive these ads. Fortunately, there are ways for you to “opt-out” of widespread information sharing (see the list of more than 120 ways below).

The Top 4 Opt-Out Opportunities:

  1. www.OptOutPreScreen.com. Remove yourself from the marketing lists sold by the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. There is not cost for this list.
  2. www.DMAchoice.org. This puts you on a Do Not Mail list for the Direct Marketing Association. The cost is $1, but it is well worth the instant trip down in your mail.
  3. White Pages. That’s right, your old-fashioned printed phone directory is the source for most of the online contact info databases. Remove your directory listing (you will likely have to the phone company every month to have your info NOT shared – I know, it’s asinine) or otherwise opt out.
  4. www.Spokeo.com. To opt out, read this blog post about [intlink id=”1752″ type=”post”]removing your info from Spokeo[/intlink]. This is one of the more utilized sites by identity thieves, stalkers and scammers.

There is a slower and more tedious process of opting out of online directories (i.e., you have to visit every one. Some (Spokeo.com)  are more important than others (Whitepages.com) because of the information that they collect. Sites such as Spokeo.com can have as much information as your physical address and pictures of your home, while others may just house your phone number. These sites spend hours upon hours scouring public records such as marriage licenses, birth certificates, and real estate purchases for this type of information.

Since most online directories typically offer a way to opt out of their listings you would think they would make it easy. Not so. They tend to hide this option deep within the site, as they don’t actually want you to leave. Luckily, The Privacy Rights Clearing House has done most of the legwork in their Comprehensive Opt Out List. I suggest starting with a few main sites, 123people.com, spokeo.com, etc. and continuously adding to it over time. Opt out of one a week if you like, and eventually your data will be less exposed. Protecting your privacy and identity is a layering process. It is easy for people to get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to online directories.

John Sileo speaks on information control, identity theft prevention and data breach avoidance. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more, contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Protect Yourself Against Mail Fraud

The reality is that unsecured, curbside mailboxes are prime targets for people who are intent on committing the crime of identity theft. Although I would suggest to stop using the mail to send and receive identity documents, this is not always possible. Therefore, here are alternative suggestions:

Lock Box. Install a locking mailbox that can be accessed only by you. These generally have a mail slot that allows the postal service to put mail into the box. Many newer neighborhoods already have some form of locking mailboxes.
P.O. Box. If a locking mailbox is not possible, get a P.O. box at your local post office and have sensitive documents sent there. It is a little bit more work, but gives you much more privacy.
In Person. When mailing sensitive documents, walk them into the post office and hand them to a postal worker. If it is after hours, drop the mail through an internal slot in the building. If there is no internal mailing slot, mail it the following day. This cuts out the most vulnerable stages of mailing.
UPS/FedEx. Have identity documents sent by UPS or FedEx and make sure that you require a signature for delivery. This makes the information harder to steal and you can track its location at anytime, which will alert you if the document isn’t delivered in a timely manner or is diverted somewhere else.
Send Checks to the Bank. Have sensitive documents (like new checks or credit cards) sent to your bank rather than to your home address. Pick them up there.
Watch for Cards. When new credit cards are coming through the mail, watch for them and call the credit card company if they don’t arrive in 7 to 10 days.
Quick Retrieval. If you are unable to install a locking mailbox and don’t have access to P.O. boxes, retrieve any mail within an hour or two of delivery. This lowers the exposure time of your mail.

According to the Identity Fraud Survey Report by Javelin Strategy & Research, 8% of all known identity theft is committed by mail fraud and the misuse can last for up to 175 days. But mail fraud is very difficult to catch, which means that the numbers are probably significantly higher. Just by protecting your mail against Identity Theft you can reduce your chances of becoming a victim by at least 8%.

John Sileo became America’s leading Identity Theft Speaker & Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC.  To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by [intlink id=”15″ type=”page” anchor=”Contact John Sileo”]email[/intlink] or on 800.258.8076.