Your information is not safe

{mosgoogle}Your information is not safe. As long as others (employers, credit card companies, medical facilities, etc.) have your private information, you are always at risk for identity theft. All it takes is for an employer to lose your information or give it away or one person/employee to steal the information. A cellular phone company experienced just that when employees used customer data to create fraudulent accounts. The bogus accounts were used by the thieves and their friends to ring up thousands of dollars in calls.

When it comes to protecting your identity, being proactive is the only practical way to go to avoid the frustration, time, and expense of restoring your identity and name. Some things you can do to prevent identity theft include not giving out your personal information, shredding unwanted mail, and not carrying your SSN card with you. Also, continuous credit monitoring is an easy, effective and often inexpensive way of keeping an eye on your credit at all times to help prevent credit related identity theft. However, credit monitoring will not protect you or your identity when the police come to your home during Sunday dinner and arrest you for a crime you did not commit. When it comes to non-credit related identity theft, (character/criminal, SSN, DMV, medical) there is not much you can do to protect your identity, especially when so many others have access to or can steal your personal information.

Many will tell you that you don't need any type of identity theft protection or coverage, but you never want to be the person who says, “I wish I had had identity theft protection” after your identity has been stolen and you have spent thousand of dollars and many hours trying to restore your name and identity. There are many products in the market that offer credit monitoring and even credit restoration. However, to provide protection in all five categories of identity theft, one should have, at a minimum, a service or product that offers restoration of your identity and name in all five categories of identity theft as well as access to legal counsel.

We now live in an age where identity theft coverage will be just as necessary as medical/health insurance.

Nicole Kinsey, Ph.D. is an attorney and an identity theft consultant. Dr. Kinsey established Identity and Credit Guard Services to provide comprehensive identity theft resources and services to individuals and businesses with identity theft concerns.