Posted on 02/20/2008 4:16:24 PM PST by APRPEH
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I was a victim of identity theft a couple of years ago. My understanding from that experience is an individual can activate a fraud alert, but it only stays in effect for either 6 mos. or 90 days, something like that. But it definitely expires in less than a year and requires reactivation. You can get the fraud alert to stay activated for 5 years ONLY if there was a police report generated as a result of credit fraud against your SSN. Lifelock just does the reactivation for you automatically, and eliminates about 90% of the junk mail credit-offers.
LifeLock tells you straight up that what they do you can do yourself for free.
I am a paying customer primarily to cut down on the garbage credit solicitations. You won’t know until its too late if a credit card app mailed to you gets stolen and someone else fills it out.
Their site says every 90 days they will reinstate the fraud protection.
I don’t trust either the credit reporting companies or what are most likely their biggest customers, the credit card companies. Confidence game all around.
That is correct. I know plenty of people with outstanding character with bad credit. I know crooks with excellent credit. Your credit rating has less to do with your character than it does with others’ abilities to make money off of you. Pay off a big bill all at one and your credit rating will DROP.
No, and I’m heartened to see a few folks here not assuming the credit bureaus’ integrity as a given. Same thing goes for “bank fraud” - what about the fraud committed by the banks themselves, like ordering transactions to maximize overdraft damage regardless of order in which the checks are cashed, and holding your own money for 24 hours regardless of having never deposited a bad check.
It should not be a citizen’s responsibility to do this paper-pushing type of work to protect his good name when our nation and economy needs more real work (engineering, labor) and LESS paper pushing. Institute the death penalty for anyone caught committing fraud and make an example or two, and fraud will drop considerably.
Just so I understand you. You want a PIN so you can keep the kids off the phone?
ping for later
These folks deserve each other. There is a much better alternative to protecting your credit, and neither of these organizations want you to know about it because it resolves most of the potential problems with identity theft quickly and relatively cheaply. It’s called a credit freeze, and depending on where you live it will cost you a maximum of $30.00 to do one with all three credit reporting agencies. If you need to unfreeze your credit (to apply for a loan, credit card, etc.) you can do it, but there is a fee attached. In the long run it’s a lot cheaper than what one of these credit protection organizations charge, and a whole lot cheaper than dealing with identity theft. It will put a crimp in any impulse credit purchases you want to make, but that’s probably a good thing.
You can read more about it Clark Howard’s website. http://clarkhoward.com/topics/credit_freeze_states.html
Not anymore.
If you think about it, it's like me handing out your personal credit information and if I make a mistake it's your problem and your responsibility to fix it.
Oh, and I don't give you any way to stop me from doing that on a permanent basis because it would be too inconvenient for me.
Nice racket.
less than 30% of identity tyep fraud involves credit and therefore a credit report.
I concur, however the most egregious violator of individual privacy rights is the FEDGOV.
Good luck finding one person in that behomoth that will take responsibility for lost or stolen data.
it wouldn’t hurt my feelings a bit if the credit police took a hit.
then companies that traffic in such data for a profit would owe royalties to each person whose data they sell.
that would make them accountable. it might even induce them into another line of work.
Screw Experian.
They make their money selling people’s SSNs and credit history without their knowledge or permission. I hope this guy takes a huge bite out of their ill-gotten profits.
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