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As of November 1, 2007, the three National Credit Bureaus, Equifax, Transunion and Experian, enabled U.S. residents in all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico to place a Credit Freeze / Credit Lock on their Credit Reports. Prior to such date, State Laws in 39 states made such Identity Theft protection tool available to those residents. Now, the three National Credit Bureaus have gone one step further, instituting a Voluntary Program to make such tool available to all, even in those States where no Credit Freeze laws are effective. Equifax has also followed Transunion’s lead, integrating such tool into its various Credit Monitoring products. Equifax’s new feature is now called Equifax Credit Report Control TM. More…

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According to several studies and surveys, anywhere between 7 Million and 15 Million American residents fall victim to Identity Theft annually. Such annual figures represent anywhere between 2.3% and 5% of the total population of the United States. Such large annual percentages imply that over a span of 40 years, or during one’s lifetime, it is almost a certainty that one would fall a victim of Identity Theft. Given such risk, and the disruptive and detrimental effects of becoming an Identity Theft victim, it is no wonder that 39 States, and the District of Columbia, have all passed Credit Freeze / Credit Lock laws More…

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A comprehensive action plan to fight Identity Theft comprises of Deterring, Detecting and Defending against Identity Theft. Deterrence is the most important aspect of such action plan as it seeks to stop Identity Theft before it even happens. Some of the most valuable tools for deterring Identity Theft comprise of shredding, protecting personal information, and locking access to your credit report. In order to make sure deterrence measures are effective, you must make sure you have not been exposed to Identity Theft, by detecting Identity Theft when and if it happens. When it comes to detecting Identity Theft, the most valuable tool is Credit Monitoring.More…

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Identity Theft, resulting in about 9 Million victims annually, has become America’s number one crime. As consumers expressed their concerns, most States introduced Credit Freeze laws allowing consumers to lock down access to their Credit Report. Although such laws are now available to more than 67% of the total U.S. population, they still lag in the Deep South.

In the Deep South region, consisting of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, only Florida and Louisiana have effective Credit Freeze laws available to both Identity Theft victims, as well as non-victims. Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, with a total population of 18.2 Million residents (consisting of 6% of the total U.S. population) still have no Credit Freeze laws. Meanwhile, Mississippi has only recently made such law effective, but only available to Identity Theft victims.  More…

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Identity Theft protection services continue to evolve in order to provide consumers a higly effective weapon against Identity Theft. Millions of consumers have already signed up for active Credit Monitoring services, giving rise to a new multi-billion dollar industry.

Some critics of Credit Monitoring services have emphazised the fact that although Credit Monitoring services will help consumers detect Identity Theft, such services do not actually help consumers deter Identity Theft. It is true that if a consumer employing Credit Monitoring services ia alerted to unusual activity on his Credit Report, then obviously such activity has already occured.

Recently, Transunion, one of the three national Credit Reporting bureaus, has incorporated a new feature into its Credit Monitoring services that will actually help deter Identity Theft. Transunion, through its TrueCredit services, is offering subscribers to its 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring the ability to Lock and Unlock their Transunion Credit Report online with “just one click”. When you More…

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