Though identity theft has quickly become the fastest growing crime in America there are steps that you can take to protect yourself from becoming a victim. The first step is recognizing what identity theft is and how it can affect you. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your knowledge or consent to commit a crime, such as fraud or theft. This information can be retrieved through a variety of means, from your mail, computer or bank cards. Identity thieves will steal key pieces of personal information and use it to impersonate you and commit crimes in your name. As well as taking your name, address and phone numbers, thieves will look for social insurance numbers, drivers license numbers, credit card and banking information, bank cards, birth certificates and passports.
Once you become a victim of identity theft, it will literally take you hours and thousands of dollars to rectify the situation. By signing up with an identity theft protection company before you become a victim, you will escape the painful experience that others who don’t enroll will face. If you sign up after you have become a victim it will be too late.
You may not know that your identity has been compromised until you check one of your credit card statements and notice numerous charges that you yourself did not personally make. Or when you check your credit rating or unfortunately are contacted by a debt collector for an unpaid debt. With identity theft growing into such a serious crime, it may take time to resolve any credit issues. The average identity theft victim can spend hundreds of dollars as well as unlimited time trying to repair any damage that has happened to their credit. With identity theft, some victims have lost out of possible employment opportunities, been declined for bank loans and credit cards as well houses and or vehicles due to any negative information that is on their credit.
LifeLock is a company whose number one goal is to protect their clients. To show how serious they are in protecting their client’s identities, they created the LifeLock guarantee; every client who has their identity stolen will be covered under their $1 Million Total Service Guarantee.
The CEO of LifeLock, Todd Davis issued a statement that confirms this firm belief in his company. "No one can stop all identity theft, and don't believe anyone who says they can, but look at what we've done. Our proactive approach has resulted in successfully protecting over 99 percent of our members. That's unprecedented. And the less than 1/10 of 1 percent that did fall victim to identity theft were completely covered by our guarantee."
With the stance that LifeLock holds in fighting identity theft, they have been able to reduce the risk of their client’s identities becoming compromised or stolen.
One way LifeLock does this is by notify their clients if a change of address was made in their name. Additionally as part of their service, they will also ensure that their client’s names are taken off of junk and pre-approved credit approval mailing lists.
LifeLock will assist in requesting both the fraud alerts and credit reports on behalf of their clients as part of the service that they offer. Within an hour of signing up with LifeLock each client will receive notice that alerts have been placed upon all their credit reports with the three major credit bureaus in America. These bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The credit bureaus will normally send out a report notifying you that an alert has been placed on your account – just to confirm the steps LifeLock took on your behalf.
After signing up with LifeLock each client should also notice a decrease in the amount of junk mail, especially pre-approved credit offers that they receive in the mail. Thrown out pre-approved credit card offers are often an easy way for thieves to steal your identity.
I hope you now understand why signing up with an identity protection company such as LifeLock is beneficial to you as a consumer. By signing up as a member each client is protected under their $1 Million Total Service Guarantee. As a member, you can relax knowing that your identity is protected, and even if it should become compromised, there is a company who has your back. They will take the fight off your hands and make sure that funds that have been stolen are returned to you as well as fighting for you to regain your identity and restore your credit.