Friday, January 16, 2009

Identity Theft Insurance - What an Identity Protection Service Does

Everybody needs to be aware of the dangers associated with the crime of identity theft. If you are doing what you can to not fall victim to this crime, then you need to investigate ID theft protection products.

A lot of personal information is out in the open due to the rampant use of use of consumer credit cards and loan applications. The more your personal information is used, the more likely you will become a victim of ID theft.

There are steps that you can take to reduce the likelihood of becoming the next victim of this crime. On of the most affective, and definitely easiest, steps you can take is to start using a service that is designed to protect your identity.

These services takes several measures to ensure that your identity is protected. This includes placing fraud alerts on your credit reports with the major credit report bureaus, which causes you to be notified whenever new credit is attempted to be opened using your information. By being alerted, you have ultimate authority over who has access to open accounts in your name.

Next, they monitor many places that illegally trade in vital information, to ensure that your information is not on the black market. Also, they take your name off of junk mail lists, which means you should stop receiving those offers of new credit in the postal service, thus reducing the risk of mail ID theft.

There are several companies that offer these identity protection services. While they all do the same basic thing, some companies offer additional features that might do a better job at protecting your identity.

Identity theft is a crime that should be taken seriously. Your good name and credit is at stake, so make sure that you take the risks of identity theft seriously.

Every consumer should be clued into what is happening with their identity. Being one step ahead of the matter of ID theft is the least that you should be doing. You should be doing what you can to protect your identity, and a great place to start is by using an identity theft protection service.

Harvey Warmuth is a consumer advocate who feels everyone should be using identity theft insurance to protect their identity. Learn more about identity theft prevention services by visiting his website: Stop Identity Theft

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harvey_Warmuth