Identity Theft - How to Protect an Identity

There is a lot of advise on how to avoid identity theft. Shred your mail. Don't give personal or private information over the phone. Check the mail every day and stop mail delivery when out of town. Keep all documents safe and secure. Do this, do that, watch out, jump over this bar, duck under this bar, snake through this hoop and cross fingers and prey like heck. These are good procedures to follow. They just won't help when the government leaves millions of records unsecured, or AOL releases millions of personal searches, or a business is hacked and it's databases are compromised. Go to Google News and do a search on "identity theft". Read the stories. There are hundreds, thousands and sometime millions of identities compromised every day. It is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when virtually every personal identity will be compromised.

There are three primary steps everyone should take in protecting their identity.

Number one is monitor your credit. Identity theft almost always begins with your credit. It is where you are most likely going to be targeted by criminal activity. It is the easiest way to compromise an identity too.

Number two is 24×7 access to legal counsel. Identity theft and the laws and government protections are complicated. If you are compromised you will need legal assistance in every state where your identity was fraudulently used. Also, who do victims call in the middle of the night when they've been arrested on a warrant for a crime they didn't commit? The brother-in-law or best friend that is an attorney can help you with the occasional speeding ticket, but would be useless if your identity were stolen. Seriously, just ask them yourself. With the right plan and company, this is a very affordable service for all people. What is critical is that you get more then just monitoring and absolutely do not waist money on identity theft insurance. More on this later.

Three, you need identity restoration services. Just read the stories on the net about how lives have been ruined by identity theft. Once an identity is stolen it could take the average individual year, even a lifetime to restore their own good name. It would mean hundreds of hours stolen from the victim too. Hours stolen from work and the family. Having a profession service that specializes in identity restoration is imperative. The best companies can restore and identity in as little as a few months, and most of this time is caused by the bureaucracies they deal with. Bureaucracies that you would have to deal with if they weren't.

Identity theft insurance is practically worthless. Most of these policies give money to the victim so they can fix the problems themselves. Hopefully, it's already painfully clear that an individual can't fix this problem on their own. Identity protection and restoration needs to be handled by professionals. Please don't wait to get covered.

One great solution to identity theft protection is Identity Theft Shield from Kroll Background America and Pre-Paid Legal Services.