ID Theft And Identity Theft Prevention

Identity theft affects over 9 million Americans alone each year. As the degree of damage varies from individual to individual, the lasting effects are nearly the same. ID theft ultimately affects your credit score. And in many cases ID theft can cause major damage without the victim even realizing it at first.

Identity theft can occur simply by a ID thief obtaining a person's identifying information such as their name, Social Security numbers, credit care and other account numbers and more. There are many ways in which an identity thief can obtain your information. These events and more can really damage a person's credit report and overall score which could take a while just to get back in order. So how can a person protect themselves from identity theft,

The most effective way to combat identity theft is to check your billing statements regularly as well as monitor your credit report regularly. Monitoring ones credit does not have to occur daily. But, if done on a monthly basis, one can see any discrepancies on their credit report soon after a potential identity theft occurrence appears on their credit report or billing statement.

Despite the fact that the ID theft occurrence may not be entirely the credit holder's fault, the lasting effects become that victim's responsibility to discover and fix. However, there are now services that provide identity theft protection which can be found in more detail at our site. These services can help you keep a close eye on your credit and all identifying information and help prevent identity theft overall.

Sticks you with the debt AND the bad credit report. Leaves you to figure it out, report it, and fix it. So what can you do, Be proactive. It is one of those situations where you have to anticipate the crime before it happens because chance are, it will. There have been reports that computers with sensitive information on them have been stolen from employees who work at banks, retail outlets, and government agencies every year (sometimes twice a year) for the last four years.

These computer thefts have resulted in over 9.3million personal data files being compromised. That, to me, is an astonishing figure. Credit report monitoring used to be the only way combat this crime. You can monitor your credit yourself by pulling your credit files from the credit bureaus every few months, or you could have a service that would electronically monitor it for you.

Though it cuts the lag time between the crime and your knowledge of it, credit monitoring services are only able to detect identity theft crimes after accounts have been opened and damage has been done. Now, there is a more technologically advanced type of service available called identity protection. The way it works is by keeping a constant electronic eye on chat rooms and directories and continuously sifting through online public records.

It detects and flags signs of social security number fraud, stolen credit-card account trafficking, and other types of identity theft right away, before a crime occurs. The risk of identity theft is real. It is the fastest growing crime in America. Whether you choose to get identity protection or go it alone, your best chance is to take a proactive stance.

It really isn't that difficult at all to repair credit yourself if you know the basic things that most credit repair services would otherwise do for you for a fee. If you aren't aware of those simple actions, here are 5 quick and easy steps to do credit repair yourself.

In this tough economy, when every dollar counts, it is crucial to learn how to do credit repair yourself. Each and every day, thousands of desperate people are needlessly running to credit repair agencies spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars trying to get their credit up to par. But it really isn't that difficult at all to repair credit yourself if you know the basic things that most credit repair services would otherwise do for you for a fee.

If you aren't aware of those simple actions, here are 5 quick and easy steps to do credit repair yourself. 1. Access a copy of your credit report - you are entitled to a copy of your credit report for free once a year. You can access it in the mail, by phone, or even online.

Although you get this free credit report, be sure to also get your credit scores along with your report, as this is the foundation for doing credit repair for yourself. 2. Check your credit report for errors - this is one of the biggest factors that credit repair agencies bank on - the mistakes that can you easy remove yourself while you're in the process of credit repair. Look for wrong addresses, wrong social security numbers, accounts with balances that you've already paid off, and even accounts with late payments that were actually made on time.

3. Negotiate account payoffs - here's another area that you are typically charged for by credit repair agencies which you can avoid by doing the credit repair yourself. All you have to do is call your creditors on collection or past due accounts and ask them to settle with you.