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Tami Nealy is a Senior Director of Corporate Communications with LifeLock.com, a company that monitors your information for identity theft offers solutions on how they can help victims.
Your identity is your name and any other unique identifier
Examples are:
- Name and Social Security number
- Name and date of birth
- Name and address
The 5 Points of Protection in a LifeLock membership
- Monitoring: LifeLock looks for applications for credit and asks you to verifiy if they were opened by you
- Scanning: LifeLock scans websites, including sites that sell people’s personal information, to see if your information is out there
- Responding: Their resolution team works with you to resolve any ID theft issues.
- Guarantee: LifeLock pays for legal fees and certain expenses in resolving you ID theft problems
- Tracking your credit score: Another thing LifeLock monitors to detect if identity theft is occurring
What LifeLock costs
- LifeLock (basic): $10 a month or $110 annually per person
- LifeLock Ultimate: $25 a month or $275 annually per person
- LifeLock for Minors: $2.50 per month or $25 annually per child
Top 3 things to do to protect your identity before going on vacation
- Inform your credit card companies that you will be going on vacation so they do not shut down you card by accident and they can contact you if any charges show up elsewhere.
- Do not announce that you are on vacation before or during vacation away from home.
- Be careful when using open wi-fi access points such as restaurants and hotels.
Educating consumers and law enforcement
LifeLock also has a partnership with the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (FBILEETA.org) to offer education to law enforcement officials with the goal to create tips and recommendations that educate consumers to prevent identity theft or to work more closely with law enforcement to capture those identity thieves.
How to check your credit report for free