25 Excellent Resources To Protect Against Identity Theft
We all know that identity theft and fraud are growing issues today. It is important to protect your personal identity to avoid 
becoming the victim of such crimes. Thieves use other people’s identities everyday to obtain credit cards and make illegal purchases. This can ruin your good name and wreak havoc with your credit history. Identity theft can effect everything from your ability to get a job to the amount of money you pay for insurance. It can take hundreds of hours to clean up the aftermath of personal identity theft. Today, I have compiled 25 excellent resources to help you deal with identity theft. As you become successful, it is important to protect yourself so some knucklehead doesn’t steal your identity and distract you from living life to the fullest!
Minimize the risk that your personal identity will be stolen.
These articles will help you to prevent identity theft. I strongly believe as Ben Franklin did that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So, I have included more articles in this area than the others. If you think it will never happen to you, please read the first article listed below!
- My Interview with United States Postal Inspector J. Krafels- All About Identity Theft
- How to Prevent Identity Theft — Deter, Detect, Defend
- The scams and cons that could clean you out
- Reduce The Risk of Identity Theft
- Email Spoofing and How to protect your online identity
- The Ultimate Guide to Identity Theft Prevention
- 10 ways to stop identity theft cold
- Identity Theft, Protecting Yourself Against the #1 Crime in the World
What to do if your identity or credit card is stolen.
Okay, your identity or your credit card has been stolen, what should you do? It is critical that you take action fast. These articles will tell you exactly the steps that you should take. The quicker that you recognize identity theft and act decisively, the better off you’ll be.
- Dealing With the (Possible) Theft of Your Personal Data
- My Identity Was Stolen!
- How To Freeze Your Credit Report
- 8 Things You Must Do If Your Identity Is Stolen
- What To Do if Your Credit Card is Stolen
- HOW TO- Get Through Having Your Identity Stolen
How to monitor your credit report.
As I mentioned above, your credit report is used by all kinds of companies as an indicator of what kind of person that you are. It is imperative that you regularly monitor it for accuracy. The credit reporting companies make mistakes all the time. Here are some great resources to help you ensure your credit report reflects the real you.
- Getting Organized- Monitoring Your Credit Report
- Free Credit Reports – Not From The Commercial
- 11 myths about credit reports
- 5 steps to do-it-yourself credit repair
Web tools to assist with identity theft.
There are some great tools on the web that can help you minimize the risk of personal identity theft. Here are a few that you might find interesting.
- 5 “DISPOSABLE” Web Accounts to Keep Your Identity Safe
- GreenDimes – Stop junk mail for free.
- ProQuo – Remove your name from marketing lists for free.
- myFICO® – Credit score monitoring.
Non-profits with resources on identity theft.
Finally, if you still need more information or help, then you might check out these sites. They are packed full of links and articles about identity theft.
- Identity Theft Resource Center
- Identity Theft Resources from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
- Citizens for a Secure Identity
Identity theft doesn’t have to be a complete nightmare.
As you can see, there are a ton of great resources available to help you avoid and deal with identity theft. If you take preventative steps, act quickly when an incident occurs, and use the resources available to you, you can minimize the impact of identity theft on your life. Why wait until you are the victim?
Photo by CarbonNYC
I work for an identity theft prevention service, IdentityTruth.com.
It is astonishing how often identity theft happens and how it affects more than just a person’s credit. There are a number of services out there that claim to PROTECT your identity. The majority of these sevices offer fraud alerts for a monthly fee.
Fraud alerts protect you from people trying to open up new credit in your name. Fraud alerts are a step that anyone can do for FREE… you just need to contact one of the credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, or Equifax).
But what many people do not realize is that identity thieves target more than your credit. They’ll create new addresses, new utility contracts, or new phone numbers in your name. They can steal your identity and leave you paying their bills because their bills are not linked to them. The thieves’ bills are linked to you and your identity(name, social security number, etc.)
What IdentityTruth offers is the Earliest Possible Notification to alert you of potential threats to your identity. Our service monitors data sources both online and off-line and looks for fraudulent activity.
We’ll notify you via e-mail or text message, allowing you to review the information we have collected in an easy to use personalized website. Once you start with our service we can point out potential areas where your identity may be at risk, allowing you to secure any piece of your identity and keep it safe from fraud. We also include credit reports and credit monitoring as part of our service.
Our goal is to notify you before your personal information is compromised, and to be faster than fraud. If you want to learn more about our service, check us out at http://www.identitytruth.com.
GreenDimes here,
Think we found our ID theft mascot
Thanks for including us in your top 25 ways to prevent ID theft.
Excellent resources for combating the aftermath of this devastating crime…And as of today… 226,875,143 TOTAL RECORDS…LOST?!…stolen…vanished…seized?!
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm
Thank you for compiling these resources, putting them all in one place, easy to find. “Everyone…bookmark this site, you hear!”
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http://www.MyIdentityRestoration.com
Try this on for size:
http://www.thewisdomjournal.com/Blog/my-identity-was-stolen/
True story.
What an incredible set of resources. We have an insurance policy that pays for the dealing with identity theft. (It is included with our policy for free.) I hope we never have to use it.
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Great resource. Thanks for putting this together.
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Security measures I take everyday…
-FireFox over Internet Explorer
-NO online banking when using Public WIFI
-VPN (virtual private network)on Public WIFI… you can good & FREE software online.