Consider the box on page 74 of the April 2008 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. It is the one embedded in an article about ID theft prevention, which starts on page 72.
The article itself really only considers the financial side of identity theft, even when it pays lip service to the existence of medical identity theft. The article doesn’t even suggest the far more serious medical consequences that could result if the identity thief’s medical information, such as blood type or medication allergies, gets confused with yours.
Inside the box on 74, the author discusses how credit monitoring, fraud alerts, and credit freezes can be done by the consumer, some of these at no cost. She is correct. Some experts even said credit monitoring and ID theft insurance are poor investments. By themselves, I agree.
ID theft insurance can have holes in its coverage, and any consumer can get one free credit report per year per credit repository at annualcreditreport.com. But even if you stagger them at four month intervals, a lot can happen in the mean time.
What the article does not tell you is continuous credit monitoring can be more effective in dealing with new accounts and addresses opened in your name.
Still, the problems associated with medical identity, social security identity, criminal identity, driver’s license identity are left uncovered.
Later in the article, though, the author does discuss the difficulty of restoring one’s identity, and mentions the important factors to consider, when considering a service that can do identity restoration work for you.
Here, at last, is what is important to know. A legal expert recommends that id theft coverage include employment, criminal, medical and financial issues as well as provide access to attorneys.
It would follow, then, with so many new services popping up, it is important for the consumer to sort them out and find those that have true value. Ideally, you should look for experience and expertise. Identity theft is not just a national problem – it is worldwide. It can require a network of investigators and attorneys to properly deal with ID theft issues.
I just read an outstanding book by identity theft experts Michael McCoy and Steffen Schmidt (Google them). The book is entitled The Silent Crime: What You Need to Know About Identity Theft. In it the authors discuss different case studies in all areas of identity theft. They also highlight what businesses need to know about identity theft and their data privacy. For a good understand of the true scope of ID theft effects, I recommend this book
The authors also investigated and compared some of the top ID theft services available. It is important to note that they only found one service that provides help before, during and after identity theft occurs. This is achieved with continuous credit monitoring, professional restoration services, and attorney access, including 24/7 emergency access if you are about to be arrested for someone else's crime.
If you look at the true cost of identity theft to its victims, and not just in financial terms, you will see how valuable a good ID theft plan can be. And the cost is minimal, especially when compared to health care coverage.
If you still think you’d rather go it alone when it comes to minimizing your risk of identity theft, read the 46 steps recommended by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse at: privacyrights.org/fs/fs17-it.htm.
If you want to work an ID theft issue by yourself check this page: privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a-it.htm.
After you read those pages, I think you’ll agree with me: the small cost of a good ID theft plan is well worth it. That's why I have a service that helps me sleep at night.
Paul Joslow is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist with Information Security Consultants LLC. Contact him at stopidtheft@msn.com.
Comments(1)