A Complete Wall Of Protection With Your ID Theft Coverage

By J. M. Smith

Everyone seems to have the answer to this epidemic; Million dollar coverage's, insurance for reimbursement, resolution to walk you through the process and promises of 100% guarantees that you'll never become a victim.

Where do you begin to weed out all of the junk from the good?

Let's start here in answering some of these questions and you decide. I think it'll become pretty obvious to see how to get protection that will work to save you time and money.

You'll need to start first by knowing that you cannot and will not prevent yourself from becoming a victim. It is extremely dangerous for anyone to display their social number in public.

I could take that number right now and go to just about any medical clinic and get medical treatment using that social. Most of these clinics don't ask for ID, neither do they run the social and verify that the social matches the ID. That's medical ID theft.

Be aware of the 100% guarantee that you will never become a victim. Your information is already irretrievably out there in cyber world. Just about every where you shop has information about you and if you have a credit report your data has already been sold.
Consider these breaches:

1. CardSystems Solutions Inc. a major credit card processor. At risk: 40 million people.

2. Seisint, a unit of LexisNexis that compiles information from government records and holds personal data about most American citizens was repeatedly attacked. Hackers gained access to U.S. account holders' social security numbers, names, addresses and drivers license numbers in 59 break-in attempts over two years. At risk 310,000

3. DSW Shoes, data lost from more than 100 stores stolen. At risk 1.4 million.

4. San Diego State University. At risk 178,000

5. ChoicePoint. At risk 145,000

6. CitiFinancial. At risk 3.9 million

7. TimeWarner. At risk 600,000

8. Bank of America Corp. At risk 1.2 million

The list goes on and on. I could write for a couple of days on these breaches. The idea here is to show you how your information is irretrievably out there. It doesn't matter what you do with your information, it's what these companies are doing with it. Think you can still be covered 100%? Here are ten things anyone can find out about you:

1. Your current and previous address (from the US postal service and credit bureaus)

2. Any criminal convictions (from court records)

3. Whether you have a professional license (from licensing agencies)

4. Whether you have filed lawsuits or been a defendant in a lawsuit (from court records)

5. If you've had speeding tickets, drunken driving convictions, or other marks on your record (DMV)

6. What cars, trucks, boats and planes you own (from state motor vehicle records)

7. Whether you have filed for bankruptcy or had liens placed against your property
(from court records)

8. What you have pledged as collateral for bank loans (from Universal Commercial Code usually in county recorders' offices)

9. What pieces of real estate you own and how much you paid (from county tax records)

10. Whether there is a warrant out for your arrest (from court records and police agencies)

Some of this information is published in your local newspaper and much of this information is at no cost, it just takes a little time. To a thief it doesn't matter the time he takes because he'll get paid.

Ok, so if your information is out there and you can't protect yourself then what do you do? You slow the thief down. I'm not going to cover that right now I just want the facts out to show you that you are not guaranteed 100% that your ID is protected. Once you understand that, you can then start to ask these other questions.

If you do become a victim what should you do?

I believe there are three things that are essential to your being 100% covered.

The first of these is that you have a complete restoration service available. Not a service that will walk you through the process. I say this because the average victim will spend over 600 hours to repair the mess. That's 15, 40 hour work weeks. I don't have that much time and most probably your boss isn't going to let you sit there at the office making calls to fix your problem.
Many victims never do clean up the mess and just when they think they are safe and have the problem taken care of they find out from some other source the information is still there.

There are some people who will have to carry with them the rest of their lives a piece of paper stating their victimization as proof to law enforcement if arrested or detained.

A good restoration service will assign an agent to your case and begin the process on your behalf to clean up and clear your good name.

Know this, reimbursement services may reimburse you for the money lost but do not reimburse for time spent. You've heard, time is money and just because you get reimbursed you could spend your life or well over 600 hours clearing your good name.

Also know that reimbursement or insurances generally want you to file a claim and if you have ever had to deal with filing claims with insurance companies you know that could be a nightmare. They also know that you as a victim have to report the ID theft within 60 days or you could be held 100% liable. Read the FTC's report "ID Theft Take Charge".

So while restoration services are good they still don't completely cover you or you could even say while reimbursement or insurance services are good they still don't completely cover you.
Second you need a monitoring service. Once again time is money. Unless you want to monitor your credit everyday and spend your time doing this I suggest pay the monthly fee usually $10.00 a month will do this for you. Actually a good restoration company will also monitor your credit for you as well. I suggest the restoration company that monitors Experian. Why? Because Experian does a daily download of address changes.

Now here's the kicker. This is by far the third part of the coverage no one ever talks about and is in my opinion the most important.

Ask yourself this question. If you are arrested or detained because of criminal ID theft, do you think you might need access to an attorney? Let's say it's a holiday or after normal working hours and you're pulled over and told there are warrants for your arrest. Wouldn't you like to talk to an attorney either on the spot to keep you from being arrested or at the county jail?
Why doesn't anyone talk about the third part? Because they don't know.

So here is what most folks do. They see a lot of advertising on ID theft; they get scared because of some ad on T.V or some program on a celebrity show. They think it's the best decision with little or no research and call the company advertised. Again, generally a reimbursement or insurance service is good but then the victim finds out they need an attorney and most attorneys are over $200.00 an hour. Try this one on for size. If you're arrested try calling your insurance company you have ID protection with and see what advice you get. And that's if they're open after hours and even if it is within normal working hours what type of legal advice are they going to offer you? That's right, none.

An attorney will almost over 90% of the time be needed if you fall victim to this crime. Think about this. The first thing everyone says to start the process of notification is filing a police report. If I have to file a police report I want an attorney's guidance. If I'm arrested I want access to an attorney and I don't want to pay $200.00 or more an hour and I want it 24/7 because ID thieves are at work 24/7, right?

Don't let this ID theft stuff get complicated. Just ask the right questions and do your research. Here is the complete wall of protection, Restoration, Monitoring and Legal. Any of these left out and you could be in trouble.

J.M Smith is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist specializing in small business ID Theft consultation and individual protection and has been featured on HOM-TV Ch. 21 an award winning local network channel. He conducts speaking engagements on the subject of ID Theft and frequently offers free seminars to local libraries and senior centers. For more information visit http://www.idtheftcorptrainer.wordpress.com