Why You Need To Protect Yourself
The effects of identity theft are long reaching. Many people have difficulty proving their innocence. You may have to contend with delinquent bills or bankruptcies that were filed in your name. You will probably be facing unauthorized charges. You may have lawsuits filed against you.
Unfortunately, judges and the courts aren’t very sympathetic. When they hear cases every day involving violent crimes and brutal attacks, identity theft doesn’t sound that bad. As we discussed earlier, there are very few laws about identity theft, which makes receiving any help from the legal system very unlikely.
What would you do if a judge ignored your problem? What will you do when the Police Department says “I am sorry but there is nothing we can do”. Who would you turn to? Who can clean up the mess? Think your credit card company will? Forget it. An attorney? You’d better have a lot of money; attorneys don’t come cheap.
The stress and anxiety associated with identity theft are real. As a matter of fact, many people suffer long term health consequences as a result of the stress induced by identity theft.
A woman from Berkeley, California had her name, birth date and SSN from her insurance paperwork stolen in 1999 by the receptionist at her doctor’s office. For the next three years, the thief used the woman’s name to rent an apartment, get cable, buy a cell phone, open credit card accounts and apply for other lines of credit. The imposter was able to steal more than $15,000 worth of goods.
The woman spent more than a year trying to clear her name, but there were several items she was not able to correct on her credit report.
Creditors, collection agencies and even credit reporting agencies are often unresponsive to consumer requests to clear their names, so many consumer find they aren’t able to clear their names entirely despite their best efforts. In this particular case the woman’s credit dropped more than 100 points, and she was unable to repair it completely. The damage on her reports may stay for as many as 7-10 years.
Think you can clear up your account and just be done with it? Think again. In many cases fraudulent accounts have to be cleaned up more than 3 times due to the inadequate response from creditors and reporting agencies. There are even some cases in which victims found new accounts were opened even after a fraud alert was filed because creditors simply ignored the alerts.
Beyond the financial and time impact, many victims find themselves suffering from depression after fighting for years to clean up their credit without avail. Think about how frustrated you get when a store won’t accept a simple return or you can’t figure out how to follow some simple government process, then multiply that by 100!
While we would love to give more instructions on how to survive after your identity is stolen, it is very difficult because it involves so many factors for each individual. There is no generic solution.
The reality is everyone is either on a pre-identity theft restoration plan or a post-identity theft restoration plan. Our research tells us that post-theft identity restoration is very expensive and time consuming. We did find a reputable company that will restore your identity but the fees start at about $1,500 per incident. If you are completely stuck, frustrated, and out of time, email us and we can provide a referral.
The much smarter option is to evaluate identity theft protection options now and implement a pre-theft protection plan. Make sure the plan can help address, as much as possible, all 5 areas of identity theft we have defined in this book:
We strongly recommend that you DO NOT SETTLE FOR WHAT THE CREIT CARD COMPANIES PROVIDE! Our research did not find any credit card company offerings that were comprehensive enough to justify the fee.
We conducted exhaustive research on this topic and found only one provider who meets our criteria. Their service costs about $1 per day and is very comprehensive in both monitoring and restoring your identity – including legal assistance by attorneys. Actually, there are many side benefits that this membership includes, such as will preparation, assistance with traffic tickets, contract reviews, and phone consultations with attorneys about other issues. If you are interested you can :
E-mail us for an identity theft protection referral Or Visit our recommended identity theft protection service provider.
