KNOWLEDGE CENTER
- History of Identity Theft
- A Look at identity Theft Statistics
- Credit Monitoring: Protecting Yourself Against Identity Theft
- Understanding Identity Theft: How an ID Thief Gets Your Information
- Phishing Scams: Understanding and Protecting yourself
- Identity Theft and Your Rights
- The Internet and Identity Theft: What You Must Need to Know
- Preventing Identity Theft: Protecting Personal Information
- Common Identity Theft Scams
- Suspicious Signs and Signals
- A Look at Credit Card Fraud: Identity Theft In the 21st Century
IDENTITY THEFT LINKS
ProtectMyID
ProtectMyID is an identity protection service offered by Experian, one of the three major credit reporting agencies. Like many similar services, ProtectMyID scans the internet for your personal information and also assists you if your identity has been stolen or your accounts compromised.Services Offered
ProtectMyID has a host of services to monitor your personal information on the web. The service continually monitors activity related to your account at all three of the major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You receive a notification either by SMS or email any time there is a change to one of your credit records.
ProtectMyID also scans the internet for your personal information being used, such as Social Security number, credit card numbers and bank accounts. In order to initiate this part of the protection, you provide ProtectMyID with the information when you first sign up. The service scans for three credit or bank accounts only.
One of the first indications that someone has stolen your identity is a change of address filed with the post office. This allows credit card bills and bank statements to be diverted to another address so that you do not see the activity. ProtectMyID monitors the US Postal Service’s database and alerts you to any change of address recently filed in your name.
If your wallet is stolen, ProtectMyID provides a Lost Wallet service that assists in notifying all of your banks and credit card companies and cancelling the accounts immediately. In the event that there are unauthorized charges that the credit institutions will not reverse, ProtectMyID will cover the charges.
You can also add your children to the service for an extra fee. Because children don’t monitor their credit histories on a regular basis, identity theft scams often target children’s Social Security numbers. This can ruin a child’s credit rating before they ever get out into the world and establish their own.
Like many identity theft protection services, ProtectMyID offers a guarantee. If your identity is stolen while you are a subscriber, the company will cover your losses up to one million dollars for items like legal fees, stolen money and lost wages.
Pricing
ProtectMyID offers a 30-day trial for a dollar so that you can check out the service and see if it gives you the level of protection you are looking for. After that, the service is $9.95 per month. Each child added to the account is an additional $6.95 per month. The service includes one Experian credit report for free at sign up. Subscribers also have the option of purchasing credit reports from all three agencies for a discounted price at any time.
