By Ken Stoll

Once again the spotlight was focused on the growing problem of stolen Social Security Numbers as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in coordination with the Department of Justice and other local law enforcement agencies arrested more than 300 foreign nationals employed at Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plants in five states.

It is alleged these workers committed identity theft and other criminal violations in order to obtain their jobs. So far, 311 Pilgrim's Pride employees were taken into custody during the enforcement action. Charges against these individuals include false use of a Social Security Number and document fraud.

                     

Innocent citizens faced with serious problems triggered investigation

Authorities began their investigation after receiving multiple complaints from citizens who were wrongly requested to pay unpaid tax bills, experienced denial of medical service, damaged credit ratings and even false arrest.

"A significant percentage of identity theft is carried out by illegal aliens trying to avoid detection and gain employment. However, even under the least damaging circumstances, these identity thieves wreak havoc with the credit and tax histories of innocent U.S. citizens who spend years trying to repair the damage," said Julie L. Myers, Department of Homeland Security.

During the investigation, numerous identity theft victims came forward who described to ICE agents hardships they suffered as a result of having their identities stolen, including mistaken tax liens, denial of medical and social services benefits, and damage to their credit ratings.

Some of the victims had been notified by the IRS and told they owed taxes on unreported employment wages. Others had even been arrested on warrants issued for crimes committed by the person who stole their identity.

Simultaneous raids were conducted at Pilgrim's Pride plants in Mount Pleasant, Texas; Live Oak, Fla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Batesville, Ark.; and Moorefield, W.Va.

Authorities made it clear that the arrests were not random, and they had proof those in custody were working under someone else's Social Security Number.

"A good set of documents that had the right Social Security Number and right name could run up to $1300," said John Chakwin, Special Agent, Immigration & Customs Enforcement. "It costs you more money, that is more money for the right Social Security number and right name and date of birth. All the documents are provided to you, including drivers license, birth certificate. And they are all counterfeit."

Around 80% of the employees used stolen identities

Domingo Garcia, Legal Counsel  for The League of United Latin American Citizens General Counsel said it was well known that around 80% of the workers at Pilgrim's Pride had fake identification. He also said the plant had to have known about it.

"It's an open secret. Bo Pilgrim wasn't taken away in handcuffs. Why not? Why the double standard? Why go after the employee and not the employer? If you are going to do it, do it right," said Garcia.

Headquartered in Pittsburg, Texas, Pilgrim’s Pride features 37 production facilities processing over 9 billion pounds of poultry annually and is the largest producer and marketer of poultry in America.

By Walter Dubowec

With the federal tax filing deadline just around the corner, USA Today is reporting identity theft is a growing menace to honest taxpayers.

Identity theft experts also report that credit freezes and credit monitoring provide no protection against this type of identity theft. Tax fraud is a growing form of identity theft which begins with the misappropriation of one's Social Security number - a valuable piece of personal data that is not protected by either credit freezes or traditional credit monitoring.

Only an identity monitoring system offers any form of advance detection. Failing that, taxpayers are advised to acquire an identity recovery service to help break through the IRS bureaucracy as they attempt to reclaim their stolen identity.


               

Tax-related identity theft is a major problem

David Hodge of Mount Vernon, NY got a big surprise when he filed his federal tax returns. "I was stunned," says Hodge, when his accountant said the IRS had rejected his return because someone had already filed using his name and Social Security number.

Hodge contacted the IRS and he was told to produce copies of his Social Security card and birth certificate within 30 days, "or else I would probably have more problems with that number."

As tax deadline day approaches, Hodge's bad experience is becoming more common. Federal Trade Commission complaints involving tax returns linked to identity theft are up 158% since 2003. Similar complaints to the IRS Taxpayer Advocate jumped 644% in three years. Last year there were over 21,000 known cases, but experts believe the problem is much larger.

Nina Olson, head of the IRS Taxpayer Advocate office, reported to Congress that identity theft is now one of the top problems facing taxpayers. Olson believes the statistics only reflect a small part of the problem.

"If you want quantification, we don't know," Olson says. "The IRS has no idea how many cases of identity theft exist."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., criticized the tax agency's efforts to combat the problem during a Thursday hearing. Saying, "Victims of identity theft deserve better," he directed the IRS to produce a comprehensive action plan within 90 days. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, conceding the agency's response to the problem "is not where it needs to be."

"It's time to end the nightmare for honest American taxpayers who fall victim to identity theft," said Baucus.

That identity theft nightmare is spreading. This according to USA Today interviews with more than a dozen accountants and other tax experts across the country.


Many different schemes to which taxpayers fall victim

Often, identity thieves look to collect a fraudulent tax refund. They file with one stolen identity, claim multiple dependents and apply for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. An identity thief can get a tax refund worth thousands of dollars this way.

Diana Aliffi, a Riverhead, N.Y., accountant, allegedly stole former clients' personal information in a scam that could have netted up to $19 million in tax refunds, according to an indictment recently unsealed.

"People create a phony business, phony children, phony working hours and other details to get a very nice refund," says Eduardo Leiseca, an enrolled agent in Miami who says a client who ran an import-export business fell victim to just such a scheme.

Stealing someone else’s identity can help thieves hide a criminal conviction, illegal-immigration status or other problem that could block them from getting a job. Their employers file W-2 wage-reporting forms with the IRS, which attributes the income to the true owner of the Social Security number. Victims don't discover the problem until the IRS contacts them with questions about under-reported income.

Eventually, the innocent victims are faced with weeks or months of battling the bureaucracy to verify their identity so as to avoid longer-term financial damage.

A New York State Police trooper whose identity was stolen last year waited from February until September to get his anticipated tax refund as the IRS sorted out the problem. "He was counting on that refund to pay his real estate tax bill. He didn't have the money to pay on time … and he had to pay penalties and interest, so of course it was a hardship," said his tax preparer.


ID theft victims forced to wait for refunds

A worker at the Hiram Walker distillery in Fort Smith, Ark. received an IRS letter questioning whether he had under-reported his income, says Charles Homolka in Muldrow, Okla., who prepared his tax return.

"Someone using his name and Social Security number worked at an aircraft factory in California. The IRS thought my client was hiding the income," Homolka says. "It made me laugh, because the commute would have been murder."

The distillery employee wasn’t laughing, because the problem took at least three months to resolve with the IRS.

Many cases take far longer. From 2002 through 2005, multiple identity thieves used the name and Social Security number of a Mexican-American factory worker to get jobs in Kansas, Texas and New Jersey, says Bob Smith, a tax preparation agent in Albert Lea, Minn. 

"One year, he supposedly had over $240,000 in income" from all the different jobs, Smith says. "He said, 'I'll pay the tax if I can have all that income.' "

Each time, the IRS held up the worker's tax refund while investigating whether he had under-reported his income, Smith says. Each time, it took about six months to prove his client hadn't worked elsewhere and to get the refund released, he says.

Many ID theft victims complain about IRS delays and bungling in resolving their claims. Olson acknowledged in her congressional report that while IRS response has improved, the agency "too often exacerbates the difficulties" faced by victims. She said the IRS:

•Used procedures that ignored common-sense evidence about the rightful owner of a disputed Social Security number.

•Gave alleged victims temporary identification numbers to file tax returns and then denied tax benefits because they did not use Social Security numbers to file.

•Provided inadequate authentication processes for the electronic filing system used by many taxpayers and tax preparers.

•Provided instructions that varied from office to office, leaving victims "bounced around from one place to another."


Tax fraud begins with the theft of a Social Security number - personal data not protected by either credit freezes or traditional credit monitoring.

American taxpayers need to be on the alert. The ID theft protection they thought they had, may not provide much protection at all.

By Walter Dubowec

This true story is every online shopper’s worst nightmare.

It’s a chilling tale with links to Texas, England and Indonesia. It proves that identity theft is an international menace that knows no borders. Anyone can be a victim.

As a result of a stolen credit card being used to purchase child pornography, Simon Bunce of Hampshire, England was arrested and falsely accused of being a pedophile, he lost his $250,000-a-year job, his father and siblings abandoned him and his computer was confiscated by the authorities. 

     

The BBC reported that Mr. Bunce was an innocent victim of Operation Ore, a massive British online kiddie-porn crackdown that grew out of Operation Avalanche. That US-based sweep was an earlier American operation which began with a raid on Landslide Productions, a Texas company that handled credit-card transactions for adult web sites.

American authorities handed over a list of British credit-card numbers allegedly used to make purchases through Landslide’s payment processing facilities.

British law enforcement began rounding up 7,200 people, whose card numbers showed up on the list. Among them were rock star Pete Townshend of the Who and in 2004, an unsuspecting Simon Bunce.

Bunce was arrested without any investigation "on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, downloading indecent images of children and incitement to distribute indecent images of children" — all before a single image of such had been found on his computers at home and at work.

Mr. Bunce was fired from his high-paying job and estranged from most of his family. Only his wife believed his innocence.  So while his computer sat in police custody waiting to be examined, Bunce began trying to clear his name.

"I knew there'd been a fundamental mistake made and so I had to investigate it," he said.
Using the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and a catalog of Internet Protocol addresses, Bunce began the process to prove he was falsely accused.


Credit card was stolen from an online shopping site

Bunce discovered that his credit-card number had been used in Jakarta, Indonesia, to buy child pornography online at the exact same moment he used the card to pay a bill for dinner at a London restaurant.

It turns out that Bunce’s credit card number had been stolen from a popular online-retail site and was subsequently used to make illegal online purchases.

Finally, after several months, the police admitted that Bunce was innocent and there was no evidence of child pornography on his computer.

Mr. Bunce eventually found a new job and now sells computer security services. However, the loss of time, money, his job and damaged personal relationships can’t be measured.

Think it can't happen to you? Think again! 

By Myles Cairns

The FBI recently provided a warning to consumers and businesses that concerns everyone and highlights how vulnerable we all are. Even if you do everything right - you could still become a victim of identity theft.

There are criminals all around the globe who seize control of thousands of computers through what are known as "botnets". These botnets are a dramatically growing threat, says Shawn Henry, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, in an interview with Newsmax. 

                        

Botnets target home and business computers

Consumers, business, hospital, government and even police departments are targets of infiltration by botnets. According to Newsmax, the FBI has recently arrested 11 individuals who allegedly infected and commandeered over one million personal computers and turned them into robots that did their bidding.

The number of cyber crimes grows each year as identity thieves get more sophisticated and consumers must take measures to minimize the danger to their computers, their credit and identity. Everyone needs to use updated antivirus software, spyware protection and firewall programs.

Shawn Henry of the FBI suggests computer users think of the Internet as they would a dangerous neighborhood where their personal safety may be threatened.

“If you’re walking in a neighborhood that’s a high crime neighborhood, you have to be aware of your surroundings,” Henry says. “You don’t walk looking at your shoes and walk straight ahead. You’re aware of what’s going on. You’re looking ahead, you’re looking to your side, you hear somebody who’s walking behind you and you’re going to turn your head.”

The Internet should be treated the same way.


Slave computers are used to attack

A botnet allows a criminal to seize control of any number of computers by introducing malicious programs into each computer through its Internet connection.

With a single command, these slave computers can be used to engage in phishing schemes, inducing people to give up their personal information in response to phony emails supposedly sent by banks.

“The bad guys who control such networks have harvested hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of pieces of information,” Henry says. “That includes people’s user names and passwords for their brokerage accounts, people’s pin numbers for their bank accounts, and people’s tax records.”

To harvest information, a cyber criminal might send a million spam emails to unsuspecting computers across the country.

“If one half of one percent of the people respond, they’ve got some good numbers to work with,” Henry says. Once a computer is compromised, a criminal can retrieve any information from that computer. Affected consumers often have no idea that their computer has been compromised.


You must provide the first line of defence

“It’s important for computer users to understand that they’ve got to take certain measures in their home. They are the first line of defense”, Henry says.

Henry suggests that consumers choose passwords that have upper case and lower case letters as well as numbers and those passwords should be changed periodically. 

"What we’ve seen via the Internet is groups of people who are collaborating online to commit crimes,” Henry says. “They never know their co-conspirators’ true names. They don’t know where they live, but they all have a skill. In the virtual world, it’s done virtually, collaborating online without anyone actually knowing each other.”

"If determined enough, sophisticated criminals can penetrate any computer", Henry says.

“But taking the right precautions makes it more difficult,” Henry says. “And the higher you can raise the bar, the better off you are as a consumer.”

By Walter Dubowec

Thousands of Americans are victims of identity theft, only they don’t know it. The theft is often unknown to the victim for years.

Their identity is stolen and their credit is ruined. This can go undetected for years. Another such case has surfaced which involves an identity thief in California and an innocent woman in Kentucky.

A 24 year old Kentucky woman recently discovered she had been an ID Theft victim for the last sixteen years. Her Social Security number was stolen when she was just eight years old.

The victim was unaware that her Social Security number was being used until she recently tried to obtain utility services in Kentucky. She was notified by the utility company that someone in Sacramento had an active electricity account under her Social Security number.

                  
                   ID Thief purchased homes while victim was denied credit and utility service

Four years ago, the Kentucky woman began to suspect there was something wrong when she encountered difficulties getting credit and was subsequently denied credit.

She was not able to pinpoint the source of the problem until she was denied service by the local utility in Kentucky. A trace was made back to the identity thief in Sacramento.

Authorities stepped in and arrested 30 year old Vicente Soto who fraudulently obtained a child’s Social Security number sixteen years earlier.

After further investigations, police learned that Soto used the girl’s stolen Social Security number to purchase homes totaling $621,000 for two residences in the Sacramento area. He has lived in the second home for more than two years.

Two Homes In Foreclosure Ruin Woman's Credit

Both homes are in foreclosure. The foreclosures now are blemishes on the Kentucky woman’s credit until she fully clears her name.

Soto also used the Social Security number in other states, including Minnesota, where he obtained a driver's license.

Soto is now facing identification theft charges.

Sacramento law enforcement warns people to safeguard their Social Security numbers by monitoring their credit reports regularly. It is also important to monitor your complete identity, including Social Security numbers.

By Walter Dubowec

There is a growing problem with identity thieves making false refund claims through the IRS using stolen identities, reports the Wall Street Journal. These criminals file phony tax returns with your name, Social Security number and other personal information to collect a refund.

Growing numbers of victims are complaining to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission about this scam.

Identity theft has become one of the "most serious problems" facing taxpayers, said IRS National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson in a report to Congress early this year. Among the major problems that can arise are:

The problem is rapidly escalating, having more than doubled over the past few years. The Federal Trade Commission received almost 21,000 complaints on tax-related identity-theft issues in 2007, up from 15,000 in 2006 and 8,000 in 2003.

Ms. Olson believes those numbers "significantly understate" the size of the problem and the number of taxpayers hurt by it because, she says, the agency doesn't have a comprehensive method of tracking the various types of identity-theft cases.

Here are examples of tax identity fraud:

1. Multiple Tax Refunds: In one recent case in Pensacola, Fla., a former Girl Scout leader, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of identity theft and filing "false and fictitious" claims for tax refunds. The woman created a bogus Girl Scout medical-release form to get sensitive information, including children's Social Security numbers. She then used the information to prepare and file electronic federal income-tax returns

The phony refunds were transferred into five different bank accounts she controlled. She "filed false claims totaling more than $187,000, from which she obtained more than $87,000" from the government "as a result of fraudulently using the identity of these children, including her own children.”

2. Refund Anticipation Loan Rejected: A Connecticut woman was recently notified by a New York bank that her application for a refund anticipation loan had been rejected.

"That blew my mind," she says -- because she hadn't applied for such a loan and hasn't yet even prepared her tax returns for 2007. She also recently received a letter from the New York state tax department questioning her 2007 return, which she hasn't yet filed.

"It's horrible," she says. She has no idea how her identity was stolen -- but adds that "I now shred everything that comes to my house with my name on it" before throwing anything away.


3. Thief Collects $4,005 Instant Loan from H&R Block: In another recent case, the victim was a 53-year-old Michigan woman named Marie Mendoza. Ms. Mendoza received a call from an H&R Block representative at a nearby office. The tax-preparation firm had prepared her returns for the past decade or so. She says the Block representative asked her to bring back some paperwork she accidentally had taken with her two days earlier when she was there to file her return for 2007.

"I said, 'What, are you kidding?' " Ms. Mendoza replied that she hadn't been to the Block office at all this year, hadn't filed her tax return for last year -- and isn't planning to use Block because she feels they charged too much last year.

Ms. Mendoza soon discovered that someone had filed a fraudulent return in her name. The thief had arranged to collect $4,005 through an instant loan and already has pocketed the money. "It was very upsetting," she says.

Ms. Mendoza says Block has said she will not be held responsible for the loan, but her problems are far from over. When she tried filing her tax return electronically, the IRS rejected it. That rejection was "very stressful," she says, because she needed that refund to pay her bills. Since then, she says, she has had to borrow money, mainly from friends. She recently filed her federal income-tax return on paper but doesn't know when she will get her refund.


4. Illegal Workers Use Stolen SSN's: To make matters worse, refund fraud isn't the only type of tax-related identity theft. In other cases, the thief uses a stolen Social Security number to get a job in the U.S.

In a typical case, that person's employer later files a Form W-2 reflecting the wages, and IRS data systems attribute those wages to the rightful owner of that Social Security number. Victims discover the problem after getting a startling notice from the IRS asking about unreported income.

By Walter Dubowec

A new report from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology finds that the world's biggest banks and telecommunications companies are most frequently the companies whose security is lacking and thus become targets for data breaches.

Unfortunately, it is consumers who become the victims of the eventual identity theft crimes. This is according to data collected from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The study was compiled from 88,000 complaints filed with the FTC over a three month period in 2006. It concludes that major banks and telecommunications companies accounted for a much larger portion of the filed complaints than other industries.

             

According to author Chris Hoofnagle, a senior fellow at the Berkeley Center, the report was designed to provide consumers and regulators "objective tools" to compare banks, consumer service providers and utilities based on how they handle security and incidents of fraud and theft.

"Without such tools, consumers cannot 'vote with their feet' and choose safer institutions,” said Hoofnagle.

Here is a summary of the report's findings:

• Bank of America ranked highest of all the companies, with an average of 1,117 incidents over the three-month period. Next was AT&T with 763 incidents, followed by Sprint Nextel with 698. Rounding out the top five were JP Morgan Chase (including Chase and Bank One) with 613 cases, and Capital One with 442.

• The institutions with the lowest number of complaints over the period studied were Macy's (2.9 incidents per month), BellSouth (3.9 incidents per month), and Dell (1.8 incidents per month).

• In studying the banks, when Hoofnagle divided the incidents by total deposits, HSBC had a higher rate of fraud than Bank of America, at 21 incidents per billions of deposits compared to Bank of America's 17 incidents. ING Bank had the lowest rate of fraud, with one incident reported over the three-month time period.

The exact source of each identity theft crime is often impossible to accurately determine. Hoofnagle noted that many factors contribute to identity theft which complicates studying the findings.

Among them were incidents of "synthetic identity theft," where the thief takes pieces of genuine identities and forges a new false identity to commit crimes with, would not be accurately reflected in the complaints.

Hoofnagle also believes that the lengthy FTC complaint form could discourage many consumers from providing accurate data, which results in difficulty in linking incidents to the proper financial institutions and/or major service provider.

On February 13th, 2008, credit bureau Experian filed suit against the identity theft prevention company LifeLock, accusing it of deception and fraud in its advertising. Here is a summary of key points raised in a February 20th report published by msnbc.com.

From the files of msnbc.com 



In the lawsuit, Experian alleges that LifeLock's advertising is misleading and that the firm is breaking federal law in the way it goes about protecting consumers.  

Experian contends that LifeLock's chief ID theft prevention tool - the placing of continuous fraud alerts on consumers' credit file is illegal because, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, fraud alerts can only be requested by the individual consumer or an individual acting on behalf of the consumer.

"The FCRA does not permit the placement of an initial fraud alert by corporations such as LifeLock," the lawsuit reads. "Despite this prohibition, LifeLock has surreptitiously placed hundreds of thousands of fraud alerts on Experian’s files by posing as the consumer." 
                            

The fraud alerts, which last for 90 days and warn companies checking a consumer's credit to be on alert for imposters, can only be placed when there is suspicion of imminent fraud, Experian says. Placement of fraud alerts by LifeLock for any consumer who requests one asks also runs counter to federal law, the firm says.

LifeLock’s service includes an automated request for a new fraud alert every 90 days, to create an indefinite fraud alert. Experian calls these "illegal fraud alerts."

Experian also claims that LifeLock’s advertising is deceptive to consumers. They allege that LifeLock is attempting to profit off a free service established by Congress in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Experian has also been the target of criticism that it sells a service that Congress mandated should be free. Its FreeCreditReport.com site has been targeted by the FTC, which expressed concern that the site could be confused with AnnualCreditReport.com. 


Doesn't stop all ID theft

According to the Experian lawsuit, LifeLock misrepresents the effectiveness of its identity theft prevention tools.

"LifeLock … creates the overall net impression that LifeLock can protect against all types of fraud including computer hacking and accessing a bank account using stolen passwords,” the lawsuit says. “Fraud alerts only are effective against fraud that requires accessing a credit report.”

In one ad cited in the lawsuit, LifeLock claims “you’ll find out how to lock down your identity, making it virtually impossible for identity thieves to wreak havoc on your good name.” But, Experian contends, the company’s tools provide no protection against identity theft that's already in progress, or against unauthorized use of a credit card.

LifeLock’s systems in many cases can’t stop an undocumented worker from using a consumer's Social Security number to obtain employment, one of the more common forms of identity theft.
                                  

Most services are free

In addition to continuous fraud alerts, LifeLock provides three other basic services to consumers: It helps them stop junk mail and the mailing of pre-approved credit card offers, and it offers a copy of their credit report.

All three services are free; so are fraud alerts, though few consumers would take the time to continually request fraud alerts every 90 days.

Experian also claims in the lawsuit that Lifelock is deceiving the credit bureaus. When it contacts a bureau and asks for fraud alert, LifeLock is “actively concealing that its requests are being submitted by a corporation.” Instead, LifeLock represents that it is the individual consumer, Experian says.

                             

LifeLock also utilizes AnnualCreditReport.com, a free site, to obtain credit reports on behalf of consumers, and then effectively charges for these reports by including them as part of LifeLock's monthly subscription service.

LifeLock consumers, unaware of this, then try to get their own credit reports from AnnualCreditReport and are denied because LifeLock has already used their once-a-year benefit, Experian says.

The flooding of Experian’s systems with thousands of fraud alert requests each month also presents a hazard to consumers, Experian argued, threatening to clog the system with stale, unnecessary alerts when LifeLock "cries wolf" on behalf of consumers.

The LifeLock fraud alerts cost Experian “millions of dollars,” the firm says. And its advertising creates among consumers a false impression that they must pay for fraud alerts, which are free, it adds.

Lifelock CEO Todd Davis called the lawsuit "baseless".

By Ken Stoll

Another independent review of identity theft services indicates that Entrust America offers the top five identity theft protection features, while not surprisingly making no mention of credit freezes or lockdowns.

While the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Paul Harvey, Laura Ingraham are paid promoters who proclaim the benefits of credit lockdown services, most of the nation’s ID Theft experts do not endorse credit freezes as the nation's best identity theft solution.

Most experts agree that lockdowns and fraud alerts offer incomplete protection; credit monitoring alone does not adequately protect you and your credit cards or banks do not have you covered.
 
Gartner Research says that identity monitoring combined with credit monitoring offers a much more comprehensive solution. Entrust America’s independent focus groups felt that Full Recovery Services were a very valuable component which offered an important benefit to consumers.

                    

The Top Five ID Theft Solutions:

A review in the American Chronicle suggests that these are the most important identity theft services for consumers:

1. Recovery - This is the most important component of any identity theft solution! Sometimes it is called restoration or resolution; it is the process of returning all records that have been fraudulently affected by an identity thief´s action to the way they were before the fraud was committed. These records could be credit reports, financial records, wage and earning reports, driving records, medical record or criminal records.

2. Credit Report Monitoring - This is an important part of a total protection strategy. But, it is not an identity theft solution, as it is sometimes portrayed by certain companies. It will not prevent identity theft, nor will it resolve any issues for you if you fall victim. It is only an early warning system that to tell you a thief is working behind the scenes, which can save time and prevent further damage to your good name. Without some type of credit monitoring, you may not be aware that a criminal is operating in the shadow for months, perhaps years. Credit monitoring is not 100% foolproof.

3. Identity Scoring - This involves scanning on a regular basis over national databases to look for anomalies in the use of a person´s name, social security number and address, alone or in any combination with other personal data. With this system, it may be possible to stop identity theft before the damage is done! According, this service is becoming one of the key components in the fight against identity theft damage.

4. Expense Reimbursement - Sometimes called Identity Theft Insurance, this is sold with various coverage limits from $15,000 to $20,000 or more. While this is a valuable part of the overall strategy, it is not a solution.

5. Education - Law enforcement says being informed and taking responsibility for safeguarding your personal information is the best prevention you can practice. Look for programs that provide you with current information, receive newsletters or alerts.


Interestingly, Entrust America's Identity & Credit Protection System provides all FIVE 'must-have' services within one single program. No wonder, it is called America's Most Comprehensive ID & Credit Protection system. Remarkably, this complete coverage is available for only $19.95 per month.