How To Prevent Identity Theft

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, costing victims more than $5 billion annually. Identity theft occurs when a person uses your personal information, such as Social Security number and date of birth, with the intent to commit fraud or to aid an unlawful activity. Identity Theft is the nation’s fastest growing crime according to FBI statistics and identity theft/fraud is the fastest-growing category of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaints. An estimated 27.3 million Americans have been victims of some form of identity theft within the past five years according to a September 2003 FTC survey including almost 10 million people in 2002 alone. Identity Theft is often a means to performing other crimes. Once a criminal has enough information about you, he or she can make false loan applications, fraudulently apply for credit cards, steal money from your account, or misrepresent himself to others using your name and credentials.

Someone may have changed your billing address to prevent you from noticing unauthorized activity regarding your account. Did you make all the purchases it records? Someone applied for credit cards in their name and charged nearly $20,000. Two of the card companies have cleared my parents’ name, but the third has turned the account over to a collection agency.

Identity theft is a nightmare for the millions of people that have endured it, and unfortunately, that number rises every year. Armed with your personal information, a thief can obtain a driver’s license, open new lines of credit and bank accounts, even buy a car and get a mortgage . Identity theft is one of the fastest growing financial crimes, and can affect you and your credit record for years. You can take some measures to protect yourself. Identity theft is an assault on a victim’s good name. With tactics like dumpster diving, phishing, pretexting and skimming continuing to threaten us, consumers deserve swift and concrete action.

Protecting yourself against identity theft involves nothing more than protecting this personal information, particularly the high sensitivity items. Anyone with knowledge of just one of your high sensitivity items can do a lot of damage. Protecting or recovering your identity is no easy task. It requires keeping track of information, following up with all the right agencies if your identity is stolen.

LifeLock costs $10 per month or $110 per year, although in a minute I’ll tell how you can get LifeLock for 10% less. I first heard of LifeLock on the radio, and my reaction was that I could place fraud alerts on my credit files for free. LifeLock offers families, protection through the company’s proactive identity theft prevention system. The company basically locks down your information before an identity thief can get to it. LifeLock has finally been called on the carpet. Now this consumer class action suite.

Get LifeLock Identity Theft Prevention Now!