What Is The Role Of Various Agencies In Providing Help To Identity Theft Victims?

Identity theft is becoming more sophisticated and hard to manage by ever passing day where id thieves are finding out new ways to steal your identity

. This rapid growth in the number of cases in identity theft being reported has also been matched by the corresponding increase in the business that offer services to protect you from the impact of id theft.

However the arguments still remain when it comes to the effectiveness of services offered by these id theft protection companies. Therefore you need to find for yourself how services based on the organization would help protect your identity.

Services included

Max Thompson of Identity Theft Protection 101, identities five services which are generally offered by id theft protection companies. The services include daily monitoring of credit reports, providing you a list of the credit applications issued on your name, maintain fraud alerts on your credit reports, eliminate pre approved credit offers and also monitor other personal identifiers like your social security number.

The LifeLock Company for instance which is owned by Todd Davis offers an excellent example of the problems faced by these companies in offering your guaranteed identity theft protection. The owner of the company who is know for displaying his social security number in ads for his company's effectiveness actually had his id stolen which caused their customers to file suit against them.

Repot from Consumer Federation of America

There was a report by Consumer Federation of American or CFA in March 2009 entitled To Catch a Thief and it discussed whether id theft protection services are actually worth the cost which voiced concerns on the effectiveness of these companies. However after researching around 16 businesses which offered id theft protection service and the CFA had found several problems with their service.

Some of these include lack of proper information on costs and coverage, incomplete data about insurance coverage, misleading statements regarding the effectiveness of fraud alerts, vague guarantees and also the use of internal negotiation methods which could limit rights of a consumer.

The report from CFA also criticized the companies which publicize id theft protection service. However according to the author of the report, although the services offered by these companies might offer protection from the effects of id theft, completely preventing it is very difficult.

According to the federal trade commission you are recommended to use free identity theft protection services that you are entitled for before buying services from different companies. The FTC also specifies that based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are permitted to place both a seven year extended alert and 90 day initial fraud alert on your credit report without any charges.

When these alerts are in place, the creditors will have to personally contact you before issuing any credit under your name. You can even use credit freeze option that can stop anyone from gaining access to your reports. Therefore when choosing identity theft protection organizations make sure know what services you are offered and how much it would cost you for their service.

by: John Goldman

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