“I give my social security number out because it’s already everywhere and because I have made it useless to anyone trying to use it,” says Davis, who is also a certified ID theft/risk management specialist. “We begin a new year and it’s important that people know they have the power to stop the problems surrounding ID theft by taking the proactive steps necessary to limit who can use the information. It’s far easier and less costly to be proactive to prevent identity theft than it is to clean up the mess once it’s occurred.”
It’s not hard to understand why, either. In an environment where Americans are constantly barraged with fear-inspiring information, the statistics about identity theft’s growth are particularly frightening. Standard credit monitoring and insurance policies routinely fail to prevent identity theft. And once one becomes a victim, it will take an average of 177 hours, spanning two years to clean up the damage, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
LifeLock pledges to stop anyone from using your personal information, and to help clients clean up the mess (to the tune of $1 million) if they fail to make good on that pledge. What’s more, while credit monitoring services—and the credit bureaus themselves—don’t maintain records of minors, LifeLock promises to help parents protect their children’s information as well.
LifeLock automates much of the protection process. The service places and automatically renews fraud alerts on all three credit bureaus plus a lesser-known bureau called ChexSystems. “The fraud alert means you should get a phone call every time someone tries to establish new credit using your information or attempts to change an address,” Davis says.
Members receive annual credit reports from all three major bureaus, as well as quarterly updates when their fraud alerts are reset. LifeLock also stops pre-approved credit offers and reduces the amount of junk mail members receive. Davis is first to point out that everything LifeLock does, a consumer can do as well. “There is no question that we have made the entire process easier, but we have also made it completely guaranteed to work as well.”

To avoid ID theft, do the following:

1. Place fraud alerts on your credit report. Raising flags with the three major credit bureaus will make it extremely difficult for thieves to open new credit lines under your name. While this won’t help much if your current credit information has been taken, it is proven 82 percent effective in stopping unauthorized use of personal information.

2. Order all three free credit reports. Whether or not you are a victim of identity theft, take advantage of your free annual credit reports, which is now a requirement of federal law. Visit www.annualcreditreport.com.

3. Opt out of unsolicited credit card offers. Opt out of pre-approved offers of credit at www.optoutprescreen.com. You may choose a five-year opt-out period or permanent opt-out status. In addition to removing those incessant offers in your mailbox, you will reduce the possibility of someone rifling through your mail and opening credit under your name.

4. Become acquainted with a shredder. All your read mail (including the envelopes) should go through the shredder before it goes to the trash. While identity theft is transferring more and more to online forums, most identity theft is still done by trash digging. By using a shredder on all of your personal documents, you make the job for any would-be identity thief infinitely more difficult.

5. Let experts protect you. While the majority of preventative measures can be done by anyone, many companies exist to provide consumers with expertise when it comes to the confusing ID theft issues.

www.lifelock.com