Lunarnova
join:2008-03-17
Seattle, WA
edit:
March 25th, @11:12AM
| reply to rhymemaze
Re: Identity theft solutions: fraud alerts, credit monitoring..
There was an article a few weeks ago regarding Lifelock being sued by Equifax I believe. Basically they were saying that Lifelock charges $$$ for things that you can do for yourself like putting fraud alerts on your files and such. I think the article was one of the Red Tape reports on the MSNBC site. Here is the link:
»redtape.msnbc.com/2008/02/experi···s-l.html
I have personally not used their service, so I cannot attest to it, just passing on what I have read. I can attest to the fact that fraud alerts do work, but you USUALLY have to be a victim of ID theft for them to be put on your files. You mentioned that you checked your file, but I still want to mention that you need to make sure that you check your file from all 3 agencies. They all have different information.
I believe the credit agencies themselves have their own credit monitoring, but I do not know if they cover all 3. (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) You might want to check out their websites also.
Oh, one other thing... The government has established a website that allows you to get a free credit report each year from the 3 reporting agencies. The site is annualcreditreport.com. You can also access this through the Federal Trade Commission's website at www.FTC.gov. |
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rhymemaze
join:2005-03-10
Upper Marlboro, MD
| Thanks for the reply. The article you linked was interesting. I know I can set these fraud alerts vs. Lifelock, etc., but I wonder if I have to set them with each of the 3 credit reporting agencies? I need to search that part out yet.
My current credit monitoring covers all three agencies but no fraud alerts. It sounds like I may just need to set up fraud alerts myself unless I can find a company that will monitor my credit plus place the fraud alerts. I'd rather have that set up, but have not come up with a solution yet.
Thanks again for the information.
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Lunarnova
join:2008-03-17
Seattle, WA
| Fraud alerts go out to each of the 3 agencies no matter what agency you call. I would still double check that it did go through, but I'm anal when it comes to stuff like this.
There are 2 different types of alerts, one that stays on your account for 90 days (I think this is the one that Lifelock does) and one that stays on your account for 7 years. I think this is also refered to as a Victim Statement. The 7 year one requires that you have a police or other law enforcement report on file. |
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rhymemaze
join:2005-03-10
Upper Marlboro, MD
| I looked into the fraud alerts a bit, and it can be done over the phone. Transunion has an automated system it seems (have not checked the others). I have not started the alert yet but nice to know it will be easy to do so.
»www.transunion.com/corporate/per···rt.page? |
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Grail Knight
Who Dares Wins
Premium
join:2003-05-31
Erie, PA
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Depending on how often you apply for credit you could put a security freeze on your credit files.
Some states do not charge a fee to freeze or unfreeze the file. Only 39 states so far have enacted this measure and I see MD is one of them.
More info by state is here:
»www.consumersunion.org/campaigns···div.html
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"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact". - Sherlock Holmes |
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rhymemaze
join:2005-03-10
Upper Marlboro, MD
| Hey, thanks for the information on the security freeze. This morning I went ahead and placed my fraud alerts. I still may enact the security freeze for my wife though; we are not credit hungry so that may be a better solution for her ID.
And to think I was going to pay Lifelock $100/year (each ID) to place the fraud alerts....glad I looked into this a bit more beforehand. |
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Grail Knight
Who Dares Wins
Premium
join:2003-05-31
Erie, PA
·Verizon Online DSL
| You are welcome.
I had looked into Life Lock before for the family but read that most of the things they do for pay you can do for free or a small fee also.
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"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact". - Sherlock Holmes |
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