Identity Protection
I know better than most the importance of identity protection. Three months ago, from the time of this writing, my family suddenly and unexpectedly lost everything, becoming one of the latest victims of identity theft. As with so many things in life, I had heard of identity theft but never expected it could happen to me.
It turns out someone had hacked a database where my son and daughter go to school, and not only got far more personal information about our family than a criminally-minded person should have, but even got my social security number.
Unfortunately, without identity protection, there’s no way of knowing this has happened until it’s too late. Months passed and I was entirely unaware until I started receiving phone calls and letters from various credit card companies requiring me to pay my debts to them. The thief had taken out a number of credit cards in my name and social security number, using a false address. Apparently, this is much easier than one would suspect.
Without any form of identity theft protection, it was too late, and before I knew it, my phone was ringing endlessly with creditors trying to collect. I tried to purchase a new car for my wife but was declined due to my now-horrible credit score – after years of building that score up to damn-near-perfect.
It was devastating, and it was humiliating. Both myself and my wife suffered countless humiliations, from being declined for loans to having our credit cards declined at the grocery store and being forced to leave them for someone to put back on the shelves, followed by a march of shame, empty-handed, out the door for my wife, my kids, and myself.
Most importantly, it was frightening. My family didn’t have anything handed to us, and we had worked hard for what we had – a house, two cars, good credit, a modest savings, the beginning of a retirement plan, and some over all peace of mind. Now we were watching it all come apart at the seams – all thanks to some criminal who would probably get away with it.
After the ordeal was behind us (although, we never fully recovered), we decided it was time to find some form of identity protection. We had seen commercials on television, but we wanted to find the company that protected us the most, rather than the one that advertised the most.
We spoke with several, but were left feeling unsatisfied. So we spoke with a few friends who had employed various identity protection companies. One company, TrustedID, came up time and again, so we decided to check them out – and we’re glad we did!
There’s no way to put a price on the peace of mind that comes with knowing my identity is protected from thieves, but in the case of TrustedID, that price is $9 a month. This price includes a monitoring service that searches the Web for the illegal selling or trading of your personal information. If such activity is detected, they alert you and help you take steps to resolve the problem. Another monitor is designed to proactively detect any new address information in address databases nationwide. If a detected address change is fraudulent, they work with you to help avoid further damage and restore accurate address information. They notify you instantly if anyone uses your information to apply for credit or services. They reduce the amount of pre-approved credit card offers you receive. They even have 24/7 service representatives to help you in the case of problems.
And the part that convinced me: If your identity is stolen due to a failure in their service, they’ll help fix it at their own expense – up to $1 million!
If identity protection is important to you, and you would like to join me in having some peace of mind, TrustedID is a perfect choice.
