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How protected are you from identity theft? Probably not as protected as you think you are. |
Even the Savvy Can Get Phished
A lot of people are aware that identity theft is a growing concern. However, people still seem to brush it off thinking that they will never be an identity theft victim. That was exactly what happened to a friend of mine. As savvy as she was about her finances, she still fell for a phishing scheme while going through her email inbox.
That unfortunate incident got me thinking further about identity theft. What if I or my family fall for any of those phishing schemes in the future? What if someone
carelessly handles any of my personal data which are in the hands of companies or financial institutions that I or my family deal with on a day-to-day basis? Is there something that I can do to protect myself and my family from such incidents?
What are the Odds of
You Becoming an Identity Theft Victim?
While doing my research on identity theft, I came across the following startling
statistics about this growing concern.
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It's not a question of whether identity theft can happen to you. It's a question of when. |
According to James Van Dyke of Javelin Strategy Research, identity theft is "a crime that's almost impossible to catch when done in a sophisticated manner and a crime in which enforcement is very limited."
With the increasing trend in digitized data and the growing sophistication of identity theft perpetrators, the odds
of becoming a fraud victim continues to grow
every year. It's not a question of whether
identity theft
can happen to you. It's a question of when.
Have You Ever Heard of
Dave Crouse?
I stumbled upon the story of Dave Crouse as I was doing my research on identity theft. Fifty-six year old Dave once had a $180,000 a year construction-industry job. However, he got laid off sometime at the onset of the economic downturn. Adding insult to injury, in 2009 Dave became a victim of identity theft. But his case was not one of those minor identity theft cases. In fact, identity theft and fraud ruined Dave Crouse's life. Identity theft ruined him financially and emotionally.
What started as petty fraudulent charges of $17.98 or $37 in February 2009 eventually became uncontrollable. Within six months, identity fraud cost Dave some $900,000 worth of merchandise, gambling and telephone-service charges.
All of these were siphoned out of his debit card.
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We certainly do not want something that took us our whole life to build to be somewhat unprotected and ruined by fraudsters just like that. |
Dave's once strong 780 credit score has also been ruined. Despite efforts to save his good name, which
has cost him $100,000 (practically depleting his savings and retirement accounts), Dave says that his identity (Social Security number, address, phone numbers,
and historical information) are still being used in attempts to open credit cards and bank accounts.
(If you want to read more about Dave
Crouse's story,
click here).
The situation that Dave helplessly found himself
in is one that I would never want myself or my
family to experience. As you very well know, it
takes years to build our lives and our good
financial standing. We certainly do not want
something that took us our whole life to build to be
somewhat unprotected and ruined by fraudsters
just like that.
Reactive Versus Proactive
Identity Theft Service
Just as we protect our home, our car, our
family's health, and our life with insurance, it
makes logical sense that we also should protect
our hard-earned financial standing and
reputation. Some people simply wait for
something bad to happen before taking action. I
belong to the other school of thought ... I
prefer to be proactive.
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As far as I know, credit monitoring services only alert you after someone has already stolen your identity. Although credit report monitoring is a good measure to spot fraudulent activity, it is not preventative. |
I'm enrolled in a credit monitoring service but
I feel that such a service does not give me the
extra security I need to ensure that all is well
with my personal and my family's financial
information. As far as I know, credit monitoring
services only alert you after someone has
already stolen your identity. Although credit
report monitoring is a good measure to spot
fraudulent activity, it is not preventative.
Identity theft
protection services, on the other hand, try to
prevent thieves from stealing and using your
information.
Based on what I've seen and based on my
conversations with some of my friends, there are
two leading industry identity theft protection
services in the market today worth checking. These are
LifeLock
and TrustedID.
Based on what I have seen, there are just some very
subtle
differences between the service offerings that these
two top identity theft protection services have to
offer. But basically, they both provide the following
services.
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Credit Report
Monitoring.
Both services monitor the three major
credit reporting agencies: Equifax, TransUnion,
and Experian.
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Daily Monitoring and Alerts.
LifeLock and TrustedID both monitor daily and alert you
about any fraudulent activity within a day. This
is in contrast to the quarterly reports that you
get from most credit monitoring services. By the
time you see any fraudulent activity, it may
already be way too late to take action
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Automatic Fraud Alert.
Both services place
fraud alerts on your credit file once it has
been
determined that fraud activity had just
occurred. This feature notifies lenders that
they should take steps to verify your identity
before authorizing new or additional credit.
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$1 Million Identity
Theft Insurance. LifeLock was one of
the first companies to offer $1 million in
identity theft insurance. After which, most
other companies followed this practice. Trusted
ID also offers this too.
Other services in the market offer identity
theft insurance ranging from as low as $25,000
but more services are now offering the $1 million
guarantee (or warrantee, in some cases).
 I had to seek clarification on this cause this
identity theft insurance could be tricky. The main gist of this
$1 million insurance is that in the event that
you fall victim to identity theft, these
companies will spend up to $1 million to hire
or pay lawyers, investigators,
consultants, other specialists to help you.
These companies will do
whatever it takes to restore your name and
recover any direct losses as a result of the
identity theft. Just so you are aware, no money
passes directly to members of these identity
theft protection services.
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Online Monitoring.
If your personal data has been stolen, chances
are that this is being bought and sold on the
internet. LifeLock and TrustedID both have ways to
monitor and detect whether your information is
being sold online.
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Fraud Specialist.
If you ever become a victim of identity theft,
these services will provide you with a fraud
recovery specialist who will give personal
assistance to help resolve the issue. Such
personalized service is really needed most
especially when you do not know where and how to start
the process of notifying the proper authorities
and institutions in the event that your identity
is stolen.
Should You Even
Use Any Of These Services At All?
A lot of so-called identity theft industry experts
say that the services that
LifeLock
and TrustedID
are something you can do yourself ... that is if you
know what to do and if you have the time to do them
all.
If you do some searches on the internet, chances are
that you will find a list of what you should do to
protect you and your family from identity theft.
This includes making the calls yourself to various
agencies, writing and requesting for information,
requesting to put certain accounts on credit freeze,
etc.
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... these identity theft services can do all the monitoring for you while you can focus on other stuff that matters more to you. |
This brings me to the question: Do I really have the
time to do all of these? Furthermore, will I have
all the up-to-date information to do all these
myself? Some people may have the time to do all of
these while others may be too busy to even deal with
it. Other people may have all the time to do this
but may not know exactly what to do. So you really
have to ask yourself which category do you fall in.
Regarding the price of the service, for prices
ranging from $10 to $17 a month, these identity
theft services can do all the monitoring for you
while you can focus on other stuff that matters more
to you. You have to ask yourself how much is your
time really worth. Will you be spending just an hour
or a couple of hours a month doing what these
companies can do for you? Is your time worth more
than $10 (or $17) an hour or less than that? If you
answered more, then you probably might be better off
having these companies do the work for you. I really
think that the monthly fee is a small price to pay
for the peace of mind and security that you get with
these services.
So Which Identity
Theft Protection Service is Best?
The
bottomline benefit that you will get when you
enroll with either of these services is that in the
event that you have a stolen or fraudulent
identity incident, you will get the benefit of a
more centralized support system to take care of
what needs to be done to negate or at best, minimize the
impact of such an incident.
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LifeLock currently has more than 1.7 million members and still going strong. |
So
this begs the question ... which of the two services
provides the best identity theft protection? To be honest with you,
it's really a tough choice cause the differences
between these two services are very subtle. The choice
of which one to use will really depend on what
suits your purpose and your personal preference.
However, there are other factors that might
appeal to various customers such as the
following:
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Market Leadership.
LifeLock has been a
trailblazer and industry leader. The company
started its business back in 2005 and since
then, a lot of other "me too" identity theft
protection companies have sprouted. LifeLock
currently has more than 1.7 million
members and still going strong. LifeLock
is an award-winning organization.
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On 24 August 2010,
Inc. magazine ranked LifeLock 8th on its 29th Annual Inc. 500 List, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. |
On 24
August 2010, Inc. magazine ranked LifeLock 8th on its 29th Annual Inc. 500 List, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. In addition, LifeLock is recognized as #1 in the Inc. 500's Security category. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy, America's independent-minded entrepreneurs. Companies such as Microsoft, Visa, Zappos, GoDaddy, Under Armour, Jamba Juice, American Apparel, Oracle, and hundreds of other powerhouses gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 500.
LifeLock has also been recognized by the American Business Awards as Best Overall Company, by AlwaysOn to the Top Global Company 250 list, and most recently by Arizona Corporate Excellence as Arizona’s Fastest Growing Company.
So if you prefer a market leader,
then you might like to seriously look
into LifeLock.
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Solid Business Backing.
Lifelock is a privately held
company that has only been around since 2005.
However, the company is backed by some of the
largest private equity investors that includes
Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bessemer Venture Partners, Gold Hill Capital,
and Silicon Valley Bank.
TrustedID is also a young, privately held
company. The company counts among its investors
Opus Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
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Symantec
strongly believes in
LifeLock's
business and made a "small strategic
investment" in the company in August
2009. |
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Partnerships and
Endorsements. Reputable and market leading services are
usually endorsed and backed by other major
companies. These are the types of services that I usually
also look for because this gives companies some staying
power in the market. Having such partnerships
assures you that the service that you are using will
not just go away.
LifeLock has a major partnership with Symantec, the
world's largest antivirus software company and maker
of the Norton PC protection line of software. This partnership between LifeLock and Symantec will include bundling the two companies' products, educational outreach, and a joint lobbying effort for stronger penalties for identity thieves. In fact,
Symantec strongly believes in LifeLock's business
and
made a "small strategic investment" in
the company in August 2009.
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So if you are budget conscious and plan to have your family protected too, I think
TrustedID offers the best
value for your money. |
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Value For Your Money.
LifeLock has a tiered pricing plan. The company
has the basic LifeLock package which cost $10 a
month. The LifeLock Command Center package
includes the basic package plus some
additional monitoring services and cost
$15.00 a month. LifeLock does not offer
a family plan. Each member of your family will
need to be enrolled in an individual plan.
TrustedID has a tiered pricing scheme. For an
individual plan, Trusted ID has the lowest cost
at $8.25 a month. Now if you have a family and
you plan to have them protected too (which you
really should most especially since the
incidences of stolen identities for minors and
young kids continue to grow each year), TrustedID has a family plan
which cost $15.83 a month. So if you are budget
conscious and plan to have your family protected
too, I think TrustedID offers the best value for
your money.
A Final Thought
You need to keep in mind that these services are not the end-all
and be-all of identity theft protection. You should
not solely rely on these services for personal data
protection. You need to do your part and apply some
of the best measures to protect your personal
information from getting into the wrong hands. You
need to think of these companies as just one of the
tools in your arsenal to protect yourself and your
family from the financial and emotional wreckage
that identity thieves can cause you.
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Becoming a
victim of identity theft can be one of
the most unpleasant and aggravating
experiences that you can ever have. |
Becoming a victim of identity theft can be one of
the most unpleasant and aggravating experiences that
you can ever have. There is no room for complacency
regarding this issue cause the the impact of such a
crime can be devastating to anyone, regardless of
your financial stature. The age old wisdom of "an
ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure"
very much applies to the growing issue identity
theft.
So now the question is will you
remain reactive or become proactive? We'll leave the
ultimate decision to you.
Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate |
