In a world full of identity theft protection products, it can be confusing to find the best one. Some of the biggest players out there (LifeLock, for example) have been hit with big lawsuits and lots of complaints. (Having tried LifeLock, I can see why -- they do not give you much for your money.) Some of them over-promise, and some of them are just outright scams.
Not so with Identity Lookout. They have a solid reputation; you would be hard-pressed to find any complaints or lawsuits against them because there aren't any (that I know of at the time of this writing. They are American owned and operated, based in Michigan. Most importantly, they give you a great value. For less than the price of a decent cheeseburger, you get real-time alerts when anything goes whacky with your identity profile. The reports are simple to read, and you get all three credit reports side by side. It's an awesome product.
That's why I am such a proud affiliate. Everyone who has anything at all to lose needs this. Surf around this blog or just Google "identity theft," and you will get to know what a huge problem this is. Read some of the horror stories. If you are not protecting yourself, you are just a fool, plain and simple.
Why not give Identity Lookout a try? It's free!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Terrorists Use Stolen Identities -- Are They Using Yours?
(Note: This is an extreme example to illustrate a simple point.)
Before I knew as much as I do now about identity theft, my concept of the criminal who commits this crime was much different.
Picture when you think of identity thieves? You might imagine some acne-ridden hacker in Russia stealing your credit card number and using it to buy himself a new gaming system. That happens once in a while; 11 percent of identity theft is carried out by high-tech means, and 20 percent involves credit card fraud.
Were you aware that most victims of identity theft do not learn of the crime until months or years after it occurs? One Mormon lady in Salt Lake City recently found out that she had pole danced for money in a Las Vegas strip club. She was even more surprised to learn that she owed thousands of dollars in delinquent taxes. Someone using her Social Security number owed those taxes, anyway. It might as well have been her as far as the IRS is concerned.
The most cunning identity thieves do not bother with the penny-ante credit card capers. They can find all kinds of profitable and nefarious ways to use and abuse your good name. The most dangerous terrorist cells likely operate under the identities of decent, hardworking people. It makes it easier to stay under the radar.
A sad fact: It is simple to commit identity theft. All that is needed are the victim's Social Security number and a permanent address.
"You" could be a terrorist, and you might not even know it. Is that a chance you are comfortable taking?
As I admitted, this is hyperbole, but the fact remains that identity theft is the crime of choice in this day and age. Anyone earning over $55,000 a year is in jeopardy. Those people should by all rights take steps to protect themselves.
Do you have anything to lose? There are some powerful and inexpensive tools for monitoring what is being done in your name. You can be alerted by e-mail within minutes instead of finding out years later by way of an insistent knock on the door by government agents. If someone steals your identity, wouldn't it be great to have a chance of catching them.
Isn't that worth the price of a cheeseburger?
You should click here to learn more and to get a free trial of a great product.
Before I knew as much as I do now about identity theft, my concept of the criminal who commits this crime was much different.
Picture when you think of identity thieves? You might imagine some acne-ridden hacker in Russia stealing your credit card number and using it to buy himself a new gaming system. That happens once in a while; 11 percent of identity theft is carried out by high-tech means, and 20 percent involves credit card fraud.
Were you aware that most victims of identity theft do not learn of the crime until months or years after it occurs? One Mormon lady in Salt Lake City recently found out that she had pole danced for money in a Las Vegas strip club. She was even more surprised to learn that she owed thousands of dollars in delinquent taxes. Someone using her Social Security number owed those taxes, anyway. It might as well have been her as far as the IRS is concerned.
The most cunning identity thieves do not bother with the penny-ante credit card capers. They can find all kinds of profitable and nefarious ways to use and abuse your good name. The most dangerous terrorist cells likely operate under the identities of decent, hardworking people. It makes it easier to stay under the radar.
A sad fact: It is simple to commit identity theft. All that is needed are the victim's Social Security number and a permanent address.
"You" could be a terrorist, and you might not even know it. Is that a chance you are comfortable taking?
As I admitted, this is hyperbole, but the fact remains that identity theft is the crime of choice in this day and age. Anyone earning over $55,000 a year is in jeopardy. Those people should by all rights take steps to protect themselves.
Do you have anything to lose? There are some powerful and inexpensive tools for monitoring what is being done in your name. You can be alerted by e-mail within minutes instead of finding out years later by way of an insistent knock on the door by government agents. If someone steals your identity, wouldn't it be great to have a chance of catching them.
Isn't that worth the price of a cheeseburger?
You should click here to learn more and to get a free trial of a great product.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
How to Prevent Identity Theft from Damaging Your Marriage!
Identity theft is popular with criminals for four reasons:
1. It is an easy crime to commit
2. It is an easy crime to get away with
3. Identity theft can be lucrative
4. The economy has created a lot of desperate people who see ID theft as a "victimless crime" (which, of course, it is not)
If your identity has been stolen -- and if you are one of the lucky ones who still has a job and a credit rating to speak of, there is a good chance that it will be stolen -- it can wreak absolute havoc on your family and relationships. The financial burden is usually not yours in the end thanks to recent laws making lenders responsible, but the damage to your credit rating can persist for years. All of this stresses a marriage, domestic partnership, or engagement.
What really hurts, though, is the destruction of the most important glue in any relationship: trust.
Identity theft makes people paranoid with good reason. If charges not made by you start showing up on your credit report, dangerous lines of thinking crop up: "Did (s)he open that card and not tell me about it? Is (s)he lying to me about this? What are the odds that a random stranger did this?"
If you start thinking like that, there is only one thing to do: Cut it out! You trusted your partner enough make it this far with them. Why stop trusting them now when you need them most! If they tell you they did not open that account or purchase that item, you have no choice but to believe them unless you want to end up losing them.
Hasn't this already stressed you out enough? Pleading with creditors, waiting for new cards in the mail, losing sleep worrying about whether the identity thief is not out there doing something even worse in your name -- aren't you tired of all that? Isn't all that enough? Why add the loss of your relationship to this list of life problems caused by identity theft?
This is easier said than done, but if you discipline yourselves and decide to overcome this thing together, you will get through it and come out the other end with a stronger partnership. After you sort out all the other pains that this crime brings to your neck, your relationship just might emerge stronger, even if your credit rating suffers for a while.
So don't get too paranoid. Draw a deep breath and remember that you love this person and trust them. You need each other's support more than ever, and this one aspect of the nightmare is one that you can control to some extent.
----------------
PS -- an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Try this protection product for free.
1. It is an easy crime to commit
2. It is an easy crime to get away with
3. Identity theft can be lucrative
4. The economy has created a lot of desperate people who see ID theft as a "victimless crime" (which, of course, it is not)
If your identity has been stolen -- and if you are one of the lucky ones who still has a job and a credit rating to speak of, there is a good chance that it will be stolen -- it can wreak absolute havoc on your family and relationships. The financial burden is usually not yours in the end thanks to recent laws making lenders responsible, but the damage to your credit rating can persist for years. All of this stresses a marriage, domestic partnership, or engagement.
What really hurts, though, is the destruction of the most important glue in any relationship: trust.
Identity theft makes people paranoid with good reason. If charges not made by you start showing up on your credit report, dangerous lines of thinking crop up: "Did (s)he open that card and not tell me about it? Is (s)he lying to me about this? What are the odds that a random stranger did this?"
If you start thinking like that, there is only one thing to do: Cut it out! You trusted your partner enough make it this far with them. Why stop trusting them now when you need them most! If they tell you they did not open that account or purchase that item, you have no choice but to believe them unless you want to end up losing them.
Hasn't this already stressed you out enough? Pleading with creditors, waiting for new cards in the mail, losing sleep worrying about whether the identity thief is not out there doing something even worse in your name -- aren't you tired of all that? Isn't all that enough? Why add the loss of your relationship to this list of life problems caused by identity theft?
This is easier said than done, but if you discipline yourselves and decide to overcome this thing together, you will get through it and come out the other end with a stronger partnership. After you sort out all the other pains that this crime brings to your neck, your relationship just might emerge stronger, even if your credit rating suffers for a while.
So don't get too paranoid. Draw a deep breath and remember that you love this person and trust them. You need each other's support more than ever, and this one aspect of the nightmare is one that you can control to some extent.
----------------
PS -- an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Try this protection product for free.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Identity Theft Protection Made Easy
Look, if you read the articles below, you know that identity theft is a huge and growing problem. If you are affected, it will upset every aspect of your life. There is no doubt about this. Furthermore, if you are affected by identity theft, you probably won't know about it until months or years later. That's what the statistics say, anyway.
If you have anything at all to lose, you need to keep your identity safe, and you need to realize that even if you shred every piece of paper and never touch a computer, you're still at risk. The ONLY way to insulate yourself and your family from this problem is to use a monitoring service. For less than ten dollars a month, you can protect yourself and have some peace of mind. It's that simple.
The best value for these types of products is IdentityLookout
. Try it free!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Traditional Crime Down, Identity Theft Skyrockets
Thieves no longer need to take those risks!
Overall, crime has been on a steady decline for about 15 years now. That's a good thing.
One crime (or, really, a whole class of crimes) has seen a meteoric rise over that time: identity theft. That's a bad thing.
Criminals no longer need to take big risks for small payouts. That's the truth. A burglary will net the average burglar under $500, and the potential prison sentence is severe indeed, up to ten years in some states. Chances of getting caught are high as well.
So if you're a criminal, you do exactly what a business person would do: You look for a lower-risk, higher return "investment." It turns out that identity theft fits the bill. That explains why as fewer Americans are getting mugged and shot, more and more are finding their lives turned upside down by ID theft.
Ten million people will become victims this year. Are you one of them? You might have already been victimized, and if you're not using ID theft protection tools, you wouldn't even know it.
Don't be a fool! Protect yourself right now!
Overall, crime has been on a steady decline for about 15 years now. That's a good thing.
One crime (or, really, a whole class of crimes) has seen a meteoric rise over that time: identity theft. That's a bad thing.
Criminals no longer need to take big risks for small payouts. That's the truth. A burglary will net the average burglar under $500, and the potential prison sentence is severe indeed, up to ten years in some states. Chances of getting caught are high as well.
So if you're a criminal, you do exactly what a business person would do: You look for a lower-risk, higher return "investment." It turns out that identity theft fits the bill. That explains why as fewer Americans are getting mugged and shot, more and more are finding their lives turned upside down by ID theft.
Ten million people will become victims this year. Are you one of them? You might have already been victimized, and if you're not using ID theft protection tools, you wouldn't even know it.
Don't be a fool! Protect yourself right now!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Buy Identity Theft Protection Because...
...an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
If you had cancer, you'd want to find out about it as soon as possible, would you not? Identity theft is exactly the same. The sooner you catch it, the better. That's why you need to use tools to check up on yourself and your status in the Big Computer in the Sky. If someone runs around for months or years using your identity, they will create a big mess for you, guaranteed. If you can catch them in the first month or week, you're ahead of the game.
Also buy it because it costs less than cheeseburger a month.
Seriously, educate yourself about this issue. There is a very good chance that your identity will be stolen at some point. If you are not using one of these excellent products, there is a good chance that you will not catch the crime until it is well advanced.
Isn't peace of mind worth 30 cents a day? Isn't your family worth that much?
It's as simple as that. If you have anything to lose, it stands to reason that you can afford ten bucks a month to protect yourself from this incredible crime wave. If you have anything to lose, somebody could be taking it from you right now. Ten million Americans will have their identities stolen this year. Do yourself a favor and don't be one of them!
If you had cancer, you'd want to find out about it as soon as possible, would you not? Identity theft is exactly the same. The sooner you catch it, the better. That's why you need to use tools to check up on yourself and your status in the Big Computer in the Sky. If someone runs around for months or years using your identity, they will create a big mess for you, guaranteed. If you can catch them in the first month or week, you're ahead of the game.
Also buy it because it costs less than cheeseburger a month.
Seriously, educate yourself about this issue. There is a very good chance that your identity will be stolen at some point. If you are not using one of these excellent products, there is a good chance that you will not catch the crime until it is well advanced.
Isn't peace of mind worth 30 cents a day? Isn't your family worth that much?
It's as simple as that. If you have anything to lose, it stands to reason that you can afford ten bucks a month to protect yourself from this incredible crime wave. If you have anything to lose, somebody could be taking it from you right now. Ten million Americans will have their identities stolen this year. Do yourself a favor and don't be one of them!
Identity Theft IS an epidemic
Ten million Americans are going to be affected by identity theft this year. You had better make sure you're not one of them because it messes up a lot more than your credit report. It tangles up every aspect of your life from your financial well being to your sense of personal security.
This blog will be devoted to helping people avoid the terrible consequences of identity theft.
I want to start off by letting you know about this site that has a great identity theft protection tool and a ton of facts and information.
Good luck to you in avoiding this. It really stinks. I'll write more about it later some come on back sometime.
This blog will be devoted to helping people avoid the terrible consequences of identity theft.
I want to start off by letting you know about this site that has a great identity theft protection tool and a ton of facts and information.
Good luck to you in avoiding this. It really stinks. I'll write more about it later some come on back sometime.
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