Buying Protection Against Identity Theft: What’s Good, What’s Not
My brother’s identity was stolen a few years ago. In less than a week, four different $300 charges materialized on his credit and his bank didn’t make it easy for him to drop those items from his account. This time around wasn’t too problematic, because the bank finally sided with my brother, cancelled the extra charges and gave him new numbers for his account.
The scary thing is that, even months later, there was still someone out there claiming to be my brother, and they even had his financial and personal information — enough to get into serious trouble.
My brother thankfully resolved the trouble with the bank. His credit still gets poked by mysterious charges every now and then. My brother was incredibly lucky.
Identity theft is the scariest Internet crime. It costs millions of dollars to millions of people worldwide every year and soaks up hours upon hours of frustrating phone calls to halt payment on fraudulent purchases. In the past few years, several businesses have sprung up to help protect consumers all over the world, taking advantage of fear to scrape together a load of cash. You can even join in for a monthly fee.
No Ability To Track Effectiveness
The first issue customers have with Internet protection services is that there is no way to keep an eye on how effective they really are, or if they’re even increasing security at all.
Most companies center their efforts around checking your credit score regularly so no charges can slip past you without you being aware of its presence. There’s nothing complicated about reading your credit report — you could do it too, for much cheaper, I might add. So, not counting this, what exactly do these businesses do?
That question is impossible to answer, which is the most frustrating thing about these protective services. You have to take their word for it and assume you are somehow safer. Obviously, this can cause friction between the customer and the business. Protection against identity theft can only be measured by whether or not your identity has been stolen since beginning the use of their product. If your identity isn’t stolen, that means their efforts helped, right?
No. There are no guarantees.
Featureless Services
Protection against identity theft can bear prices both high and low, though neither type has its services explained completely. Now, consider this: almost everything these companies offer to do for you, you can do even better, for less cash. Why let someone else do it when it’s just within your reach. If you have some spare time to devote to keeping tabs on your credit report, you can do just as well.
Protection against identity theft is crucial to maintaining your financial security, but throwing money at strangers to read your credit report just doesn’t make sense in the long run.
Preventing identity fraud needs to be addressed seriously. If perhaps you are tired of worrying, get more info on how you can maximize your protection against identity theftand which services you can buy to help you. Make sure to get all of your information from verified online sources to be sure you get nothing but the truth.
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