We all know about how dangerous the Internet can be, with cybercriminals lurking around every website, just waiting to steal your identity, private profile information, credit card and financial info and more. Not to mention your Social Security number, your medical information and everything else that your digital footprint has accumulated over the years. Unfortunately, you probably don’t even know just how much information has been collected – and is now being shared or sold by data brokers to anyone with money. Worse yet – on the dark web that information is often manipulated and contains vast amounts of errors before being sold.
Identity theft has become a huge money-making business for nefarious actors. It’s costing consumers over $15 billion per year. But the damage it does to consumers is a lot more than monetary – it causes physical and emotional distress as well. In addition, a victim of identity theft usually had trouble getting a credit card or other types of loans. And 16% of victims weren’t able to open a checking or savings account.
Preventing Identity Theft
Unfortunately, no software or other service can completely prevent identity theft. But there are some things you can do to minimize your risk. One of the biggest sources of stolen identity comes from people search engines, where they obtain your personal information from the Internet including your name, address, phone number, Social Security number and other data – including records from law enforcement, reported bankruptcies and more.
You need to opt out of these sites, like WhitePages, BeenVerified, Spokeo and others, so they can’t gather or sell your data. But with over 100 of them that could prove to be very hard to do. One excellent option is to use OneRep, an online service that will automatically remove you from over 107 people search sites once you sign up. It will save you countless hours of time and save you from a lot of frustrating attempts at opting out. You could hire someone to do the opting out for you, but rest assured it’s going to be a very expensive proposition.
To help prevent identity theft, you need one of the top software programs to monitor the Internet for any fraud activity involving you and your family. And one of the top ones available is IDShield. It offers top protection for a fair price and it has features you just won’t find anywhere else. OneRep has developed a comprehensive review on IDShield that provides you with a deep dive into all its features and pricing.
IDShield – Here’s A Closer Look
IDShield offers you a variety of services, including credit and identity monitoring by keeping watch on all online activity including social media, court reporting, dark web activity and more. It also provides you with alerts to and wrongful use of your private information, and if you are the victim of identity theft, they help you in your recovery. The key to success with using IDShield is to take the time needed to input all of your information when setting it up, and that includes a lot of personal and financial information like credit card numbers, Social Security number, bank accounts and more. But once you enter all the requested data, IDShield goes to work and does a great job at what they do.
Some of IDShield’s top features provide you with unlimited consultations with identity theft specialists, licensed private investigators to work with you to restore your identity, comprehensive social media monitoring to help spot identity theft and other risks that could ruin your reputation, a family plan that covers you, your spouse and up to 10 dependent children and a lot more. Plus, they offer a 30-day free trial, so you can take a test drive to make sure you’re comfortable with the program.
IDShield has several different individual and family plans, with each offering different levels of features. For example, their basic individual plan, which covers one person, offers credit monitoring of just one credit bureau – TransUnion. But they also offer a 3-Bureau individual plan that provides credit monitoring of all three major bureaus, including TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.
There are more than 78 billion public records in the U.S., and you’ll be happy to know that IDShield scans them all for your personal data, which could amount to 34 different pieces of information – everything from your address to your Social Security number. Imagine if you had to do that on your own – it would be virtually impossible.
In addition to the 78 billion public records, there are 350 million court records – from local and state to federal courts, and IDShield scans them all to ensure your name and information doesn’t appear. Another useful feature of IDShield is that they monitor over 1.5 billion phone records to see if anyone might be redirecting your phone number or using your info to open a new account. Most identity monitoring services don’t even offer this valuable feature.
They also provide online reputation management, which is very useful if you’re applying for a new job. If you have children, and opt for an IDShield family plan, you’ll receive anti-bullying protection – which affects 37% of kids ages 12 to 17. They even have a “lost wallet support,” as their investigators will help you protect your identity if you lose your wallet.
All plans include a $1 million identity theft insurance protection policy, which will reimburse you for damages if your identity was stolen. Their family plan provides up to $2 million in reimbursement.
Summary
Based on the cost for their individual or family plans, IDShield is very cost-effective. It’s a very comprehensive program that helps prevent identity theft. If you are active on the various social media sites, rest easy as IDShield monitors everything from Facebook posts to Twitter comments, looking for information that could hurt your reputation. Also, remember that it’s up to you to protect yourself from data brokers who purchase profiles and data from people search engines – and OneRep is the best way to automatically opt out of those sites. Coupled with the identity theft protection services you’ll receive from IDShield, you’ll have a powerful one-two combination that will work to prevent identity theft from happening to you and your family.
