Compare Identity Protection Services
Selecting identity protection shouldn't be so difficult but when every company is relaying a different message it's hard to cut through the red tape and get all the important details. We have worked hard developing a list of the most important features in an identity theft protection product, hopefully this will simplify your selection process. Below you will find an overview of the services provided by ID Watchdog, LifeLock, Trusted ID and IDENTITY GUARD®, you may also read complete reviews of each service here. |
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Pre-Screen/Evaluation |
Instant idCHECK |
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Public Records |
Monitoring |
Real Time Monitoring of Millions of Databases |
Monitoring Millions of Databases |
Monitoring Thousands of Databases |
Monitoring Millions of Databases |
Reporting |
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Recovery |
100% Resolution by ID Watchdog |
Recovery Service by 3rd Party & $1 Million Guarantee |
$1 Million Guarantee |
$1 Million Identity Theft Insurance |
Internet Security |
Panda Security - Global Protection |
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Anti-Spyware |
ZoneAlarm - Internet Security Suite |
Customer Service |
Extremely knowledgeable & very responsive 1-800-774-3772 |
Knowledgeable & very responsive 1-800-543-3562 |
Excellent 1-888-548-7878 |
Very Responsive 1-800-452-2541 |
Reputation |
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Overall Ranking |
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Pricing |
$14.95/Monthly | $15/Monthly | $10/Monthly | $14.95/Monthly |
Best Deal |
30 Day Free Trial Sign Up Today! |
Sign Up Today! |
Save 15% Sign Up Today! |
30-day trial Sign Up Today! |
Full Reviews |
ID Watchdog Review | LifeLock Review | Trusted ID Review | IDENTITY GUARD® Review |
Recent Identity Theft News
Detect it Early, or Suffer the Consequences
Despite what you may have heard in past advertisements, it is virtually impossible to prevent identity theft. Don’t believe it. The secret to identity theft is finding it early. There are signs, and you need to understand them. These early warning indicators are what are behind some of the most popular identity “monitoring” services, which do exactly that – alert you when they catch an early warning sign.
The reason you want to catch it earlier is because the damage from true identity theft gets exponentially worse over time. The trail of damage in your personal records, finances, and reputation gets harder and harder to unwind the longer the theft goes undetected. Usually, the greater the damage, the greater the benefit to the thieves. For this reason, identity thieves try to “stay under the radar” when they’re using your identity – the longer they can do that, the more it’s worth to them. So know going into it that you may be fighting an uphill battle.
The reason it all unfolds like this is because your identity must be manipulated in a series of events before it is really worth something to a thief. At first, they may attempt a couple of small charges on your credit card, just to make sure it is an active, valid card and that your information on the account works. Next, the thieves will need to begin modifying your identity by adding an address. This can be accomplished by establishing a utility account with all of your info, but a new address. Once the thieves have this “proof of address” they may establish a cell phone account. This gives them both valid address and valid phone number, requirements for establishing further accounts including a bank account and a driver’s license. Only after all of these records have been established will the thieves be able to start opening financial accounts, conducting real estate transactions, stealing benefits, having medical procedures, evading criminal charges, and all the other activity that destroys your reputation.
The secret is to catch them in the act early – while they are still testing your credit card and making the first couple address manipulations. If you’re alerted to these early stage activities, you have a chance to go in and cancel these early accounts, lock up your information, and prevent any further damage. Consider an identity protection service that is designed to catch these signs early and block further damage.
Security Breaches Mean Bad News
Security breaches are the newest widespread risk to your personal information, and the favorite tactic of savvy identity thieves. So even if you’re protecting the information within your control, it’s all about the weakest link – and that might not be something you control. This isn’t to say that protecting your wallet and your mail isn’t important, because you still have to be cautious.
Your information is everywhere, stored in databases around the world and connected through the internet. Every time you have ever had a transaction, there’s a record of it. Getting a mortgage, renting an apartment, going to school, purchasing a car, applying for a job, going to court, making an investment, paying your taxes, visiting the doctor – these are but a few of the examples of something you have probably done that has created a paper trail and a database record somewhere. Identity theft rings know this, and recruit accomplished computer hackers to break into these systems. They know that because everything’s connected, they just have to find the most vulnerable database in the chain, and they’ll have all the personal information they need to profit from your identity. These identity thieves can get hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of identities all in one shot by targeting organizations with weak computer networks. This is the preferred method for identity theft rings because it is so easy and so lucrative. The sheer number of news stories published about data breaches reinforce was a common occurrence it is.
There are certain laws in place that require notifications to be sent to you in case your records are accessed through a data breach. More and more individuals are seeing these notices, but what do they really mean for you? It’s important to read the letter so that you can determine the severity of the breach, and how risky it may be to your identity. The notice will tell you what type of information was accessed – if it is highly sensitive like Social Security Numbers, you should take all precautions. The letter will also tell you what kind of “remedy” is being offered to you by the organization that lost your data. The usual is a couple free months of credit monitoring, which can be useful if some financial data has been stolen. But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the free credit monitoring offer. Thieves will commonly “sit” on your information for a period of a year or two, knowing that you’ll watch it closely for a short time after the breach, and then forget all about it. Also, it’s more and more frequent that thieves have something else in mind for your information, some kind of activity that won’t show up on your credit reports. It could involve your criminal records, medical history, background check, or any number of other records.
In summary, security breaches are a more common occurrence, so don’t be surprised if sooner or later you receive a notice that you’ve been a victim. Read it carefully to understand exactly where you are at risk, and then decide which protective actions are in your best interest. Complementary credit monitoring is a good start, but it’s usually not enough to feel completely safe. Consider supplementing a credit monitoring solution with additional identity monitoring and resolution protection.
Resolving Identity Theft Is a Pain
Unfortunately, identity theft is a reality these days. The FTC estimates an average of 10 million cases are happening every single year. With these numbers, it’s good to be cautious about the “it won’t happen to me” syndrome. Even if you shred your mail, be careful about giving out your Social Security Number to strangers, and never lose your wallet, you’re still vulnerable through security breaches of other organizations that might have your personal information. Even if you’re watching for identity theft and catch it, it can still be a pain to clean up.
A common misperception is that the damage of identity theft is mainly financial. In reality, if identity thieves make fraudulent charges on your credit card, you are only legally liable for up to $50, and in most cases you won’t be responsible for any of those charges at all. The banks have very good systems in place to detect fraudulent charges, and they budget for the loss on bad charges because they know you aren’t legally responsible. You can almost always get your money back.
No, the real danger of identity theft is the damage it does to your personal records. It seems like everyone these days is pulling your credit report, or checking an insurance report, or pulling a background on you. There’s a huge volume of information about you stored in all kinds of databases, from the credit bureaus, to your mortgage company, to your online shopping accounts, to the supermarket in your neighborhood. All that information becomes connected, and tells a story about you. When identity thieves infiltrate any of those databases and add bad information, the story about you turns bad too – your financial viability, your employment history, your overall reputation.
Repairing this damage can be a big problem. Once the data goes bad, it can spread faster than you can keep up with it. Banks and other database holders may not believe you when you request to have the bad data removed. In fact, many organizations simply don’t have departments that can help you fix bad data, and their customer service centers are outsourced to lands far away and do not have the training or authority to help either. The paperwork that is often required can become unbearable to the average Joe – everyone leads busy lives these days and doesn’t have the time to organize binders full of meticulous paperwork. Every piece of paperwork has to be accounted for, all the information has to be complete, and it all must be organized in an appropriate manner.
Some companies, like the 3 credit bureaus, have good processes in place to correct bad data. While it’s still going to take a number of phone calls and letters, you have a decent chance of getting corrections. Other databases are much more difficult. Medical records and criminal records can oftentimes not be changed. It can take visits to police stations or hospitals, finger print verification, and other forms of identity verification to even get someone to believe you’re a victim. Once an event has occurred, there must be a record of it. Without the identity of the real person that was involved, the identity of the victim will oftentimes have to remain. Even with months of dedicated work, some of these records might never go away completely.
How Criminals Use Your Identity to Make You a Bad Guy
Don’t think you could be a victim of criminal identity theft? Think again. It’s one of the fastest growing types of identity theft, and it targets people with no previous criminal history. Here’s how it works.
Think about it – identity theft is a crime, perpetrated by criminals, who are probably involved in other types of criminal activity too. On a regular basis, these criminals are caught by law enforcement, often for petty crimes but also for very bad crimes. When they’re caught, they want to get out of it as fast as they can. If they identified themselves as who they really are, with long criminal history, they would be detained for months or years. This won’t work, they want to get right back out on the street, back to their criminal work. So instead, they carry around fake ID’s (like you used to use to get into the bar) to turn over to the police in case they get arrested for anything. When the police run the background, your clean record comes up. Because of the clean rap sheet, the criminal is likely to get a far lighter sentence for that particular crime. Oftentimes, they will be let out on bail, with a scheduled court appearance in the future.
This is where it all goes wrong for you. There’s a record of the arrest that shows on your report, and now the criminal isn’t going to show up for the court hearing. That means more damage suddenly showing up on your new criminal history. Next, a warrant will probably be issued for your arrest because you have skipped out on bail. And then to top it all off, because the criminal is missing the court appearances (in your name), the toughest sentence will probably be handed out. All of this adds up to the criminal out free and clear on the streets, and a lengthy criminal history for you. The worst part is, unless you’re watching your records for these kinds of things (which most people don’t, because they never believe it can happen to them), you probably won’t find out about any of this until you apply for a job and are hurt by the background check, or are pulled over for a routine traffic stop and surprisingly find yourself under arrest
Watch Your Credit, and Watch other Records Too
Because identity theft often focuses on your financial information, it is important to watch your credit reports for signs of changes that could be a tip-off to identity thieves. Many times criminals will use your credit reports to gain new credit cards, mortgages, or car loans, non of which they will pay and you’ll be stuck with the tab. The early way to watch for this activity is through the alerts you can get from credit monitoring that tell you if there has been an “inquiry” into your credit report. An inquiry happens when the credit card company, store, or loan broker pulls your credit report for the new account application. The problem happens when you are being alerted to inquires, but you’re not applying for credit anywhere – that means somebody else is, in your name! Also, review your credit reports periodically for new accounts or addresses that you do not recognize.
Credit report monitoring is important to your identity protection, but it’s not the only piece. Many other databases exist that are built like the credit bureaus, but are used for very different purposes. Some examples of these are public record databases, real estate records, criminal history reports, employment history databases, military service databases, insurance history, and tax records. Each of these can be vulnerable to identity theft. Unfortunately, not all of them have simple “inquiry” features like credit reports, so it can be a little harder to track. The key to monitoring these is to get access to them in the first place. They are not so well known as credit reports, so finding them can be tricky. Some identity protection services offer bundled access to them as part of the service. Otherwise, you can locate some of the reports at the individual companies that maintain the databases – do a search online for the examples listed above. A few of them, such as the CLUE insurance report, you can even get for free.
Once you have all these reports, the most important thing to do is review them for addresses that you don’t recognize. This is oftentimes the first sign that something is wrong because of identity thieves. The identity theft will access a report, submit an application, or obtain a new driver’s license – they will provide all of your information except the address, which will be one of theirs. The reason for this is to hide any correspondence that gets mailed because of the activity. If it were sent to your address, that would alert you that something isn’t right. If you find addresses that you don’t recognize in any of these reports, it’s a sign that identity theft has already begun. Promptly contact the company that maintains the database to find out more information about the unrecognized address. In many cases it could be a simple mistake, but in other cases you may uncover identity theft. There are a few products offered that will help you to aggregate and scan all this information within a period of a few minutes. Look into purchasing one of these quick services to save time.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Exposes Customers…..Again
Just when you start to think the nations largest companies have your personal information protected, they let you down and expose it all. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield had undergone a complete redesign of there website earlier this year. A third party who had developed Anthem’s new website launched without putting any security in place leaving over 250,000 individuals exposed over a 5 month period. The keys to every customers identity were only a few clicks away, with access to your social the damage can accumulate and escalate quickly. Below is a short video with ID Watchdog’s President discussing the dangers of this breach.
The Birth & Death of Traditional Identity Theft
Since the early 2000 the Federal Trade Commission has been reporting steady growth of identity theft and fraud. The large scale data breaches and identity theft rings seemed to be in the headlines of every newspaper and prime time news coverage. Every now and again we would hear of a b-rate celebrity falling victim and losing thousands of dollars. Then some companies in the data aggregation industry realized they were seeing a lot of anomalies in their data. In some cases these anomalies turned out to be identity theft in its purest form, the use of a consumer personal information to benefit financially.
Shortly after companies like Identity Guard® and ID Watchdog were created to help monitor this data for patterns that may relate to identity theft. This monitoring of databases and proactive efforts by larges companies to create data breach plans has helped to decrease identity theft around the world. But the thieves and fraudsters just learned to adapt and found new ways to steal your information. Nigerian scams, key logging and malware were just a few of the new techniques theives were resorting too. These are still prevalent today and thousands of people fall victim each day because of them.
Again, identity theft protection companies had to adapt to create products that could truly cover all your bases, you now see every player in the identity theft protection space bundling their product with some form of anti virus or internet security. The days of simple identity theft is far gone, the strength of the identity protection will stop any thieve from make a quick buck to support their addictions. We believe the identity theft protection services will begin to add even more to their product bundles increasing value to you and providing even more peace of mind.
IDENTITYT GUARD® Review
One of the largest providers in the identity protection market, IDENTITY GUARD® from Intersections, Inc. has over a decade of experience protecting consumers. Its major focus is working with established financial institutions to offer services under a partner brand, with their direct consumer sales market being the smaller part of their concentration.
What we liked right off is IDENTITY GUARD®’s three-tiered service offering, which takes into consideration a customer’s budget and protection needs. Why would anyone want the top-tiered and more expensive solution if your identity concerns do not warrant the additional expense? Starting at a low of $9.99 a month with their Watchful Eye bundle, $14.99 for their Extra Caution® bundle, and $17.99 a month for their premiere Total Protection® bundle, we felt this was a tremendous benefit to anyone seriously considering a protection plan, but working with a set budget.
IDENTITY GUARD®’s Watchful Eye® bundle contains the basics, with single-bureau score, reports, and monitoring. Additionally, it contains monitoring services that track information related to your identity being sold or used online (SSN, bank account numbers, credit cards), you will be alerted to such details. In addition, IDENTITY GUARD®® tracks address changes most probably by working through a data aggregator that has access to the USPS system, and noting if a change of address has been submitted. Finally, this plan comes with $2,500 in recovery expense coverage, which includes a $250 deductible. Our concern with this package is by only having access to a single bureau, and due to how each of the three have different standards of what they track, this can leave you exposed due to lack of total tracking. Additionally, having to worry about recovery expense reimbursement may leave a covered consumer worrying about how much of the leg work they have to do on their own versus having the identity protection provider handle this hassle.
IDENTITY GUARD®’s Extra Caution® bundle builds upon the Watchful Eye® basics, but addresses our previous concerns with the first bundle by including all three bureau scores, reports, and monitoring. It also includes the internet and address tracking services from the first bundle. Finally, it increases the recovery expense coverage to $1 million in the event of theft, but still raises concerns when it comes to efforts required by IDENTITY GUARD®® versus the impacted customer.
IDENTITY GUARD®’s Total Protection® bundle sets the bar high for competitors, containing most any coverage necessary to bring comfort your identity is protected. Its core is the same services as the first two bundles, in addition to public records monitoring of bankruptcy filings, criminal and civil court records, and licenses and registration records. But what really sets this bundle apart from the other offerings are partner-provided software solutions to cover your PC and handheld device engagements which are directly targeted by identity thieves. This includes the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite containing anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall capabilities, and Mobile Lockbox for securing your personal electronic files which can expose your identity. This bundle also includes the $1 million loss insurance, which remains our greatest concern when it comes to resolution responsibility.
LifeLock Review
LifeLock is probably the best known brand name in the market. They made identity protection a respected service by an extremely effective TV campaign having their CEO, Todd Davis, reveal his Social Security Number to the entire country and challenging anyone to try and steal it. And their massive market share proves the gamble paid off.
Recently, Lifelock was impacted by a $12 Million settlement with the FTC and several state attorneys generals, which the company clarified was concerning past practices. If anything, this set the tone for the industry that any protection promised must be delivered. Around the same time, LifeLock rolled out an advanced protection plan which built upon its base services, called LifeLock Command Center.
Currently, the company does not offer a pre-screen service to check your identity before enrolling in a protection plan. This may leave consumers wondering if they truly have a problem to address. The monitoring solution focuses on your personal information being sold across internet black market sites. This is important, but a wider breath of coverage is necessary so as to ensure any loans, credit, medical treatment or other service gained by using your identity is identified and addressed.
LifeLock has a very user-friendly interface to manage your account, in addition to an Identity Alert System that utilizes email, mail or even your phone to contact you about detected suspicious activity. To ensure you can reach a representative at any time, LifeLock also offers 24-hour support. LifeLock does excel at customer service. The support hours work for everyone, and each time we contacted their support center our inquiries were answered promptly and courteously, and the agents were always helpful.
Recovery services are where we are most concerned with LifeLock. Although they do offer a $1 Million Guarantee, part of the resolution and reimbursement process is handled by third-parties. Especially on the identity recovery side, there may be an expectation for you to do much of the leg work, then present the bill to LifeLock to reimburse your expenses if approved in advance by the company.
Although LifeLock, being the industry leader, has come under heavy government scrutiny to set the tone for other providers, it appears to be making strides in the right direction, and ensuring they will provide a service you can feel good about. Although their current service may not be considered best-in-class, they are still stable so customers can rest assured their coverage will not disappear over night.
Trusted ID Review
Over the last 5 years, Trusted ID has worked to develop the product and brand which made them into one of the industry leaders in identity theft protection. With products like ID Freeze and Data Breach Protection, they have established themselves with the media. In addition, they have receive endorsements from people like Suze Orman. Trusted ID teamed up with Ms. Orman to create a product known as “Suze Orman’s Identity Theft Kit.”
Trusted ID’s main product, ID Freeze, includes some standard features such as public record scanning and anti-spyware protection. Where ID Freeze separates itself is in monitoring. Upon entering your account information, you will be prompted to enter additional credit card, bank account and medical benefit information. All this information is required for them to conduct a more thorough monitoring of your identity, but we see this as a little excessive.
Upon logging into your account, there will be options for lost wallet protection and fraud alert filings. Lost wallet protection acts as a digital backup for wallet content, and makes life easier when trying to recover your important information if stolen or lost. Fraud alerts can be very helpful for stopping identity theft in the event you have already been victimized. Unfortunately, fraud alerts can also impact gaining new lines of credit while active, so using this technique has its advantages and disadvantages. In late 2009, Trusted ID released a new feature called Identity Threat Score, which assesses your risk based on patterns seen in identity theft victims. This score ranges from 0 to 500, with 0 representing little or no risk of becoming a victim, and 500 representing you have been victimized.
We had an excellent experience with Trusted ID’s customer service. They were very knowledgeable, and able to answers any questions concerning their products and associated features.
For additional information, please contact Trusted ID Customer Service, who can be reached at 888-548-7878, and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
