You and your family are still picking up the wrapping paper scraps from under chairs and tables and the dried up tree has yet to be picked up from the curb. Barely a week has passed since the holidays. Although you had a bit of cash set aside for the holidays, you did put a few gifts on the credit cards. But you used credit with a high degree of discipline because you and your wife are living within a tight budget.
The first week back to work and school and you conduct business as usual without having any idea that some serious problems are coming your way in a few days. On the way home you stop at the local convenient store to pick up some small items to take home. At the check out, the clerk informs you that your card has been declined due to credit limit problems. You know this must be a mistake and plan to deal with it in the next business day.
After making a few calls to your bank, you discover what you feared the most. Some thief has some how obtained your personal information and had a shopping spree on your good name. You remember that the newspaper just had an article telling about an identity theft victim that went through this ordeal and was out $30,000 six months later and still had lingering loose ends to clean up. What can you do now to clean up your situation? Or better yet, what could you have done to prevent this from happening in the first place?
There are many identity theft protection services in the marketplace. Most are just insurance policies that will reimburse your losses up to a certain amount . Another program keeps a continual eye on your accounts and credit file and offers up to one million dollars in protection. This program covers anything from online theft to offline credit theft. This program is a subscription based plan but only costs around $10 per month.
You would be well advised to look into protection from identity theft to stop the problem before, rather than cleaning up the mess after the breach. And always be aware of your paper trail. Receipts and old file contents can be gold to a thief intent on stealing your identity for their gain.
Charles Mastin has written many articles to help prevent identity theft from happening to you.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Mastin