We’re going to make a controversial statement… prepare. Most credit monitoring services offered by identity theft monitoring companies provide far less than they advertise. First of all, they don’t prevent identity theft (this is a common misconception) and secondly, they only cover a small fraction of the types of identity theft that occur. And here’s a surprise, you are paying for something you can get for free elsewhere! Below are a few things that might indicate theft of your identity.
When you think of identity theft, you probably think of fraudulent charges made with your credit card. This type of theft is easy to spot and quick to resolve, but what if the charges keep occurring? It’s likely someone has access to your personal identifying information and is impersonating you.
If you filed your income tax returns this year, you probably got a letter in the mail asking if you were the one to file. This is a way for the IRS to reduce the amount of identity theft incidents related to fraudulent tax returns, but many fraud incidents still slip through the cracks. Thieves collect your much-anticipated tax refunds for themselves.
You have wonderful credit, you apply for a car loan or a nice new apartment, there is no reason for it to be denied, in fact, they should be paying you since your credit is so great. A few hours later, you get the embarrassing news… you’ve been denied. What?! Your credit score has dropped significantly, but for nothing you’ve done. It’s likely someone has stolen your identity and clearly, they don’t care what they do to your credit profile.
Imagine a similar situation: you’re filing a qualified claim with your health insurance company for a large medical expense. They’ve denied your request because, according to them, you’ve reached the limits on your plan. This is the only claim you’ve filed this year, though. According to Accenture’s 2017 Consumer Survey on Cybersecurity, 26% of patients have experienced a breach. Thieves use your information to collect the insurance money or feed drug habits.
As you can see from the above cases, many identity theft schemes cannot be tracked by monitoring services. It’s essential to always keep a watchful eye on these red flag areas, and remember, monitoring services cannot help you when something does happen. Only full-service restoration will solve your problem. You’re likely to find out after the fact you’ve been compromised, which might make you feel vulnerable, but if you have experts to help take care of the problem, you have nothing to worry about.
The bottom line is that there’s really no better time than the present to become a LibertyID member for identity theft restoration protection. LibertyID provides expert, full service, fully managed identity theft restoration to individuals, couples, extended families* and businesses. LibertyID has a 100% success rate in resolving all forms of identity fraud on behalf of our subscribers.
*Extended families – primary individual, their spouse/partner, both sets of parents (including those that have been deceased for up to a year), and all children under the age of 25