Identity theft protection services monitor your personal identifiable data — such as your name and Social Security number — online and on the dark web to protect you from identity thieves.
Hackers work day and night to illegally access our most sensitive data stored by companies, third-party vendors or the federal and state governments. That stolen information can be used by bad actors to spam you with phishing scams, steal your identity or even create synthetic identities.
Top-tier services, like those on this list, also offer monitoring options that alert you if criminals commit a crime or rack up debt in your name. Your social media, credit reports, court records and medical records are some examples of information that identity theft protection companies can keep an eye on for you. Identity theft protection companies may even sweeten the pot by offering you a VPN, password manager and encrypted digital “vaults” to secure your sensitive online documents.
“ID theft is the third certainty in life after death and taxes,” said Adam Levin, a cybersecurity expert, author and host of the podcast, What the Hack. “To an ID thief, we are their day job.”
In the event your identity is compromised, identity theft protection companies work with you on a recovery plan. It’s also common for identity protection service providers to offer insurance (normally up to $1 million) to help pay for expenses like lawyer fees needed to recover your identity. Some services like LifeLock and IdentityIQ may reimburse you for stolen funds.
“Make sure the identity theft protection company you choose has fraud resolution experts and an aggressive resolution program,” said Levin. You don’t just want a list of what you need to do if your identity is stolen; you want someone working with you directly, he added.
Of course, there are steps you can take to protect yourself if you are still mulling over whether you need identity theft protection. This includes freezing your credit for free or monitoring your bank accounts yourself. But the benefit of having an identity theft protection service is knowing that work is being done for you. If your identity is stolen, you also won’t be left on your own to recover it.
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