Identity Theft Companies - Can You Trust Them?

Tweet

Identity theft and companies that offer protection against identity theft are both big business. Identity theft hits 1 out 5 people; steals BILLIONS of dollars annually around the world; and it takes hundreds of hour work to try to straighten out and can affect your credit history, medical history, and give YOU a criminal record for many years afterward. There are a lot of companies out there and many of them are good companies. Just be sure that the protection they are selling you is worth the fee. The best companies will monitor things for you and let you know if something is "fishy" AND they will do the legwork to get everything straightened out for you if your your identity is affected. However, today, I heard about one of these companies whose founder and CEO appears to have been involved in identity theft himself, he has served jail time, and has run a "shady" credit repair company that was shut down by the federal government and he is BANNED from ever working in that area again. The company's name is Lifelock and here is a link to the story - http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=28906 I am sure there are other identity theft companies out there that have similar problems. So, do a little checking before you sign up. The author of the article recommends one service: MyTruston which charges 19.95 per month for "recovery" (which can take two - three years) and you maintain and monitor your own information. Personally, my husband and I use a service called Identity Theft Shield which is backed by Kroll (this is a multinational company that recovers money for governments and investigates major corporations). They monitor both our credit files daily and provide full restoration services at no extra charge for credit, MVR, medical, social security, and character/criminal identity theft. They only charge $12.95 per month to monitor BOTH our identities. I am sure there are other good services out there; but, I know I would not trust my monitoring and restoration to a company whose founder is more likely to steal my information than protect it; based on HIS personal history.