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Preventing ID Fraud

By FreeTraffic • Nov 10th, 2009 • Category: Identity Theft

Identity fraud is one of the biggest problem in America today. Every 4 seconds someone’s identity is stolen.There are now several credit fraud prevention services on the market to address this problem. ID thieves will retrieve your mail or trash, looking for bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, and tax information. ID thieves may steal personal information from your wallet or purse such as identification cards, credit cards, or bank cards. Fill out change-of-address forms to redirect your mail. Acquire personal information you share on unsecured websites. Buy your personal information from an inside source such as a store employee who acquires your personal information from a credit application or by skimming your credit card information when you make a purchase. Someone at your place of employment may sell your personnel records. Realizing how id thieves steal and use your personal information and how difficult it is to stop it, many individuals are turning to identity theft prevention services to receive better pro-active protection from Identity theft, keeping your identities safe from criminals. These services will monitor and alert you of any unusual activity.

The question now becomes which id theft protection provider is right for you. How do you easily compare the features of each one? That’s where a site with a comparison chart becomes handy. In addition to services that specialize in identity theft prevention, you might also want to consider a credit report monitoring service to provide you another layer of protection that many identity theft prevention services don’t always provide. Many of these credit monitoring services offer a free trial where you’re able to receive your free credit score .

There’s credit reportservices where you can see your information from one credit bureau. Other offers allow you to view your credit report from all three credit bureaus. Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian. This is important because the data contained in one credit bureau file may not match with what’s on the others. Also, many lenders may choose to see one or more of your free credit reports online. And most offers do not provide a free FICO report for free. You only get to see what’s on your regular credit reports. But a FICO report is not the same as your normal credit report or score. It uses different set of rules for producing your FICO score. Most lenders utilize the FICO report to determine your creditworthiness. Therefore it may be prudentto obtain your FICO score before asking for a auto loan. Another feature that these services provide is identity theft monitoring. With some services you only get the bare minimum while others provide total credit monitoring protection. These are some of the reasons why it makes sense to make comparisons between the features of these free credit reports online offers.

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