The answer to that question is much more involved than a simple YES or NO; it really depends on your individual circumstances. What may be even more important is what you have done to protect yourself before looking at these services.What I really want to do in this article and the subsequent free report you can access at http://bit.ly/idtheftanswers is give you the ì21 things you can do to protect yourselfì and the ìnine must-ask questionsî you need to choose ID theft protection services.Recently, Consumer Reports listed identity-theft protection insurance as ìtypes of insuranceî you do not need. With all the stories about security breaches in cyberspace, credit cards and identities stolen, why would Consumer Reports make this statement? Certainly not because the threat isnít real: It is.Consumer Federation of America released ìBest Practices for Identity Theft Services: How Are Services Measuring Up?î (Access the full report at the link above.) They looked at 20 different ID-theft services and found that while most do a fair job of representing the facts, some misrepresent industry statistics and services in an effort to sell the product.Here are some highlights.Overstating services: ID theft protection services canít stop all identity theft. You may have heard statements in advertising like ìstop fraud before it startsî or ìprevent identity theft.î While it is true these services can alert you to the possibility of identity theft quicker than you might be able to on your own, they cannot prevent your personal information from being stolen in all instances.Overstating the facts: We must be aware of marketing hype and carefully do our homework. CFA found some statistics that could be a bit misleading. Complaint numbers were used to represent the incidence of identity theft, which doesnít paint an accurate picture. These numbers do not represent the population as a whole. And, of course, there is always the claim to be No. 1 or the ìtop-ratedî without providing any supporting data.Hiding what the service is: In some cases, CFA found it difficult to find the details of the services the companies listed on their website. They had to hunt through FAQs and terms of service to uncover what the company actually does to monitor and alert you of possible identity theft. With some, they never found the information.Donít misunderstand the intent of this article. All ID Theft Protection services are not bad, and in some instances their services are worth the money. Just as any purchase of a type of insurance, we need to arm ourselves with the facts and thoroughly investigate options.Identity theft is serious. Take the time to download our free report at http://bit.ly/idtheftanswers and get the information you need to protect yourself.
