What Do You Have Guarding Your Identity?

In America, one of the fastest growing crimes is identity theft. This crime includes credit card, medical, tax and criminal fraud. It has risen from approximately 100,000 instances of reported identity theft in 2000 to 10 million in 2006. Many victims of identity theft incur losses of $5,000.00 and can take a minimum of 400 hours to be resolved.

Among the new breeds of consumer protection services for hire, including LifeLock and IdentityTruth is I.D. Watchdog.

How is ID Watchdog different from the rest? And what protections does it provide? This service provides a comprehensive protection plan that includes detection, protection, and resolution of instances of identity theft. It was developed by a team of consultants and advisors that included state and local law enforcement leaders, U.S. Postal Inspectors, federal agencies and state attorney general's to create and develop and over all identity theft solution. Endorsements include law enforcement agencies and state bankers? associations.

ID Watchdog provides protection in the areas of credit cards theft (and credit theft), phone and utilities protection, loan fraud, employment and government fraud and false criminal records. ID Watchdog monitors credit cards, both new and existing accounts, while many competitors only monitor new existing accounts. This is important protection since twenty-five percent of identity theft crimes involve credit cards but only 15% involve new accounts.

With the advent of phone and utilities companies requiring credit information in order to create a new account, a whole new type of identity theft occurs. This service protects all of your phone and utility accounts, which account for an additional 9% of identity theft cases. Some competitors are only monitoring wireless phone accounts.

Loans are easy to get, and even easier for those who have good credit. This makes those with good credit scores a key target for identity theft and the ease of the loan process makes it easy to get a loan without additional verification of identity.

Fourteen percent of identity theft crimes involve employment and tax fraud. Recent news reports include information on over 300 people being arrested for working through the use of false identities, and many people are reporting during tax season that tax returns and refunds have already been filed and collected in their name. Fraudulent criminal records may be the most damaging of identity theft instances. Can you imagine being arrested for rape or other crimes you are not guilty of? One I.D. Watchdog customer found that he was fraudulently wanted in 5 states because he'd been the
victim of identity theft.

How can comprehensive protection and detection be achieved? ID Watchdog utilizes not only the three major credit reporting agencies, but it also monitors and routinely checks databases and records that include: credit records, banking records, utilities records, property records, DMV records, State Issued ID Cards, immigration records, Vehicle Registrations and Professional Licenses.

Registration and the completion of a profile allow this service to determine where you may be most likely to be at risk for identity theft and then the process begins. Identity thieves can be very smart, and quite often an identity is created using bits and pieces of several individuals. By using more than just your Social Security number to search your records, this identity theft protection service is better able to broaden its search for ways in which your identity may be at risk. After creating your profile, a list of potential errors is provided to you, and if you see anything suspicious, you mark it for future investigation by I.D. Watchdog.

The cost of I.D. Watchdog is $19.95 a month. You can even try I.D. Watchdog FREE for 15 days, after payment of a $1.95 verification fee. Service includes a 100% guarantee, that they will resolve all identity theft issues.

In addition to the services they provide, they are attempting to encourage legal changes and provide knowledge to the US Government on the subject of consumer protection. Justin Yurek, the President, and co-founder of ID Watchdog testified before the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means on June 21, 2007 on protection of social security numbers and the plight of consumers.

I.D. Watchdog alerts you to threats to your identity immediately. You are informed of risks to your information as well as if it has compromised. Expanded search functions provide more than credit protection, it provides identity protection. The unique opportunity to use a resolution specialist saves money and time, protecting you and your family from stressful, long term and sometimes lasting effects of identity theft.

Lisa Carey is a contributing author for Identity Theft Secrets: prevention and protection. You can get tips on Identity theft protection, software, and monitoring your credit as well as learn more about the secrets used by identity thieves at the Identity Theft Secrets blog.