Identity Monitoring: Credit Alerts Not Enough

Identity monitoring is more than just monitoring your credit.

Why do so many of us believe that credit alerts will protect them from the ever-growing threat of identity theft? According to the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov), credit monitoring detects less than 20 percent of identity theft.

I use an identity monitoring service called CSIdentity. To learn more about why I chose this service (and for a discount code to sign up, visit my identity theft speaker site. I don’t make any money if you sign up for the service – I give you the code only to easier for you to start monitoring your identity).

I recently asked Bill Morrow, CEO of CSIdentity, the same question – why do we focus so much on Credit Reports?

“The answer is simple, people have been misled to believe credit monitoring is the be-all end-all solution to identity theft protection. What consumers need to know is that credit monitoring is only a piece of the puzzle.”

I use CSIdentity because it provides multiple layers, or rings of protection (if you have ever seen one of my identity theft speeches, you know that I like multi-layer approaches):

Credit report monitoring, including monitoring of credit inquiries, delinquencies, judgments and liens, bankruptcies, new loans and more.
Court records monitoring to check for criminal actions associated with the subscriber’s name, birth date and / or Social Security number.
Public records monitoring to search for misuse of subscribers’ names and addresses affiliated with their Social Security numbers, address histories and any changes to the same.
Non-credit loans monitoring to check for short-term, high-interest payday loan activity that doesn’t require a credit inquiry.
Internet surveillance that monitors Web sites, chat rooms and bulletin boards for criminal selling and / or trading of subscribers’ personal information online using CSIdentity’s CyberAgentSM technology.
Sex offender report searches that alert subscribers to sex offenders residing in their zip code and misuse of their identities by known offenders nationally.
Address change request monitoring to alert subscribers to any address change requests being filled for their address.

“Our protection service is designed to catch identity theft as soon as possible, so the misuse of your identity can be stopped. The average identity theft victim spends more than 300 hours trying to restore his or her identity,” Morrow said. “CSIdentity helps you save time and money by working on your behalf to restore your identity while you get on with your life.”

As someone who spend more than 2 years recovering from identity theft, this is a no-brainer for me. Seriously consider signing yourself and your family up for identity monitoring.

John Sileo became America’s leading Identity Theft Speaker & Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To further bulletproof yourself and your business, contact John directly on 800.258.8076.