Identity theft and monitoring for suspicious activity?
Ok, I work for this idiot company that managed to loose track of a disk with employees names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, etc. Now that my info may be in the wrong person’s hands, what is the best way for me to avoid identity theft?
Do any companies offer any kind of comprehensive identity and credit monitoring service to catch something early and nip any problems in the bud? Are these services limited to just credit monitoring, or will they keep an eye out for other things, like someone trying to obtain a driver’s license with my personal info?
I’m really peeved by my employer’s negligence.
Thanks!
There are services designed to protect you from identity theft. They’ll order your credit report and inform you of any credit activity. For about 20% of the US States, they’ll also place a permanent lock on your credit. This means it’ll take longer to get a new credit card for you (e.g. You’ll need to unlock your credit so someone can do an inquiry and then it’ll be locked back up in a few days). For the other 80% of US States, you can put a lock on yourself, but it only lasts 90 days. So far, you’ve protected yourself from new credit being opened under your name.
To protect the current credit already open, you need to have web access to all your accounts. You need to review transactions at least once a week. This is something you should be doing anyway. It’s a way to make sure the waiter you gave your card to three days ago didn’t copy it down and start ordering things on-line! Believe me, it happens.
You should ask your company if the file was encrypted and password protected, or just password protected, or was not protected at all. Their answer should give you an idea of how competent your company is. Theft happens. If they took precautions, that’s something you should be thankful for.