The following four companies offer paid programs that help deter, identify and recover from identity theft.
They have tools and services that allow you to sometimes stop it before it happens, detect it quickly if it does happen, and work with you to get your personal and financial life back in order.
No company can guarantee that you will never be a victim.
But partnering with one of these companies, with their knowledge, tools and people, can really help.
LifeLock
LifeLock is probably the best known of the id protection services.
Their service scans various areas of their financial network in order to identify any potential identity threats to an individual.
LifeLock’s proactive service uses the latest technology to help protect their members against id theft before the damage even occurs.
Their members are often alerted to situations where their information is being used to open a new financial account, such as a store charge card, car loan or even being associated to a new cell phone or utility service. This allows members to confirm their identity before the new account is actually approved.
They also scan numerous black market websites for any mention of your personal details.
They can even alert you whenever a significant transaction occurs at one of your bank accounts.
LifeLock also provides a resolution support service in case any identity theft occurs, plus they offer other benefits, such as their service that helps any of their members who lose their wallet.
LifeLock is available only to U.S. residents. You must have a Social Security number and a primary address in the United States in order to sign up.
They have approximately three million members and they offer a few different levels of service based on what you are looking for.
IdentityForce
IdentityForce has been providing proactive identity, credit and privacy protection for over three decades.
They offer credit monitoring and overall personal security solutions to individuals, along with data breach analysis and risk assessment to companies and organizations.
IdentityForce constantly monitors what they consider to be the 12 most significant warning signals that indicate ID fraud may be starting.
These signals include new financial accounts being opened, an account being placed into collection, change of address or change of phone number.
They monitor a variety of data points in order to detect the selling of personal, credit and financial information. When they believe your personal information is at risk, they can alert you to these issues.
And if you suffer from ID fraud, they can work with you to handle the details of completing the work involved.
Identity Guard
Identity Guard offers personal information monitoring, credit and identity protection and ID theft recovery assistance.
Their goal is to help you protect your public records, personal data, financial information and computers from criminal activity and its significant negative effects.
Their services monitor your personal details and will alert you if they notice something unusual or suspicious. You can be alerted via text, Email or phone.
They suggest and provide software and services to help protect your computers from digital threats. They also provide tools to help you search for and delete some publicly available personal details published online.
Identity Guard also has personal recovery assistance in case your identity is ever compromised. They have experts that will guide you through the process. You can also take advantage of their lost wallet protection service.
TrustedID
TrustedID offers identity data and protection services and solutions to individuals and companies.
Their focus is on credit monitoring, ID protection, reputation management and privacy protection to help protect and safeguard individuals and businesses from credit and ID theft.
Their individual and family services include data and credit monitoring that alerts individuals to changes in credit files.
They also perform periodic scans of black market sites that sell credit card and personal information, looking for any mentions of their clients’ details.
TrustedID offers a unique Identity Theft Score that analyzes your situation and gives you a grade so that you can evaluate how safe you are compared with other individuals. They evaluate what type of personal information is available and what general level of risk you fall into.
Because these companies offer detection and prevention services that individuals cannot do on their own, we think anyone who is worried about ID theft consider signing up with one.
