Identity Theft Protection

[mitchjav]

Just noticed that Quicken is partnering with Allstate to offer Identity Theft Protection Services (at a monthly fee) - guess this competes with firms like Lifelock. Just wondering if anyone uses these services and whether they're worth the fee? I do keep a constant watch on my accounts and would notice any suspicious activity pretty quickly, so not sure it's worth the investment.

 

[Sunset]

Nope, don't believe them notifying my after the theft is useful.

Instead I froze all 3 of the credit reporting companies. Now nobody can get a loan/credit card/or bank account in my name.

 

[Arizona1]

I froze mine too. I’m sure there are cases where knowing more earlier helps, but scare tactics is always a good sales strategy.

 

[cbo111]

I thought more folks on this site, seemingly a bit more pragmatic than the general population, would be using Lifelock or similar services. I've considered it a few times, but inertia takes over and I do nothing. I think they offer something like a $M reimbursement policy if your data breach gets expensive. Having been officially notified that my data was compromised about 6 times (mostly by some government entity for some odd reason), I still have done nothing beyond locking my credit files. But as far as I know, I've never had my identity stolen and used for any financial gain. Maybe I'm just not interesting enough?

 

[FI_RElater]

Nope, don't believe them notifying my after the theft is useful.

Instead I froze all 3 of the credit reporting companies. Now nobody can get a loan/credit card/or bank account in my name.

Yep, locking the barn door is better than having an alarm outside the barn that goes off after an animal trips it as it leaves

 

[racy]

We also locked our credit at all 3 agencies. And, I check our checking & card activity every Sunday. I'll see for myself if there's suspicious activity (over & above my wife's clothes & shoes purchases).

 

[Badger]

Nope, don't believe them notifying my after the theft is useful.

Instead I froze all 3 of the credit reporting companies. Now nobody can get a loan/credit card/or bank account in my name.

+1


What do any of those services do to warrant the cost? What potential problems would arise regarding identity theft if you froze your credit through the 3 credit reporting companies?

 

[Rianne]

I discovered how difficult it is to unfreeze credit without a pin. When we bought our new car in October, triple security measures through Trans Union and Hyundai finance co. If you incorrectly answer any question through Trans Union you're done with that phone call. They give you 3 phone tries. If you fail, have to try again in 24 hours. My DH failed 3 times. So, I had to buy the car with my credit rating. I'd say that's pretty good security after having our identity stolen a couple of years ago.

 

[Chuckanut]

As part of a settlement when a certain insurance company allowed my private information to be taken by criminals (they did not bother to encrypt the data on the data base used by their customer service people!!!), I got one of those protection services free for a year.

A few months later I applied for a new credit card at a local credit union. Six weeks after I had received the card, the 'protection' service notified me that a new account had been opened in my name. Bad guys could have charged up a storm in six weeks. Not so good.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I use infoarmor, identity guard and equifax

I'll drop two of them after I stop w*rking in 6 weeks

 

[OldShooter]

I have never seen any numbers that would tell me my risk. One in a hundred per year (probably not) or one in a million? Like people selling computer virus protection, the credit protection vendors seem to have most of the ghost stories.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I have never seen any numbers that would tell me my risk. One in a hundred per year (probably not) or one in a million? Like people selling computer virus protection, the credit protection vendors seem to have most of the ghost stories.

I didn't have any ID protection until I had my ID stolen

probably too late since no one would try that again lol

 

[OldShooter]

I didn't have any ID protection until I had my ID stolen

You had yours stolen. I have never had mine stolen. Neither of those facts proves anything at all.

So just for grins I looked here: https://www.ftc.gov/reports/consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-2018. A cursory look gave me 300,000 complaints. If there are 125,000,000 households in the US, that is about 1 chance in 400 for a household to see the problem in a given year. More likely than winning the lottery to be sure, but not something I'm going to lose sleep over.

 

[Big_Hitter]

You had yours stolen. I have never had mine stolen. Neither of those facts proves anything at all.

So just for grins I looked here: https://www.ftc.gov/reports/consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-2018. A cursory look gave me 300,000 complaints. If there are 125,000,000 households in the US, that is about 1 chance in 400 for a household to see the problem in a given year. More likely than winning the lottery to be sure, but not something I'm going to lose sleep over.

I wasn't trying to prove anything, just stating that I never thought I needed it until almost $200K was illegally wired

Two-factor authentication for email, brokerage, bank and other accounts is probably effort better spent.

 

[OldShooter]

... almost $200K was illegally wired

Interesting. How did that happen?

 

[Big_Hitter]

Interesting. How did that happen?

we took out a heloc as a bridge loan when we purchased our current house 5 years ago - after the heloc was paid off (4.5 years ago) the bank didn't close it for some reason

about 4 years ago, some guy from the UK claiming to be me called the CU several times and had them change all of my contact information and then had them execute two wires, both to UK accounts

CU called me after they discovered the fraudulent activity

so I just got a new heloc from my current bank (not the cu) as I'm about to FIRE 12/31 and I made darn sure they won't do wires over the phone

 

[Spock]

I froze DF's credit at the 5 primary bureaus.
The credit monitoring that comes with Discover Card did a fairly good job of notifying when a new account was opened (DF didn't understand he was taking out a 7K loan from Miracle-Ear when he was trying out hearing aids).
In talking with fraud victims at work, they all stated that freezing credit was "good enough", so I've never been big on ID Theft Protections plans.

However recently DF has fallen for numerous scams where he has given out his SSN.
This is literally inviting other scammers. DF thinks he is smarter than they are and makes plans to open new bank accounts to receive his Spanish Lottery and Publishers Clearing House money... "that way they can't get at my bank account".


So I signed him up for LifeLock. Maybe it will provide more monitoring, but its not only about prevention... I'm looking at the insurance and assistance with cleaning up a mess when it happens. Maybe those are empty promises. But DF is running around with a lightning rod in a fraud thunderstorm... sounded like a good idea to have a fraud ambulance nearby.

 

[Jerry1]

Just throwing this out there. Is there a cost for freezing you credit? It looks like it’s about $30 from a site that had what each state allows. But “allows” isn’t the same as requires. So can you get it frozen free or cheap? Does it cost to unfreeze? If there is a cost, can’t you just unfreeze the one that whoever you’re dealing with uses instead of all three? I’d like to do this, but I’m not interested in spending a bunch of money or going through a bunch of hoops. Of course if I ever had my identity stolen, I’d probably think different, but I haven’t.

 

[Spock]

Just throwing this out there. Is there a cost for freezing you credit? It looks like it’s about $30 from a site that had what each state allows. But “allows” isn’t the same as requires. So can you get it frozen free or cheap? Does it cost to unfreeze? If there is a cost, can’t you just unfreeze the one that whoever you’re dealing with uses instead of all three? I’d like to do this, but I’m not interested in spending a bunch of money or going through a bunch of hoops. Of course if I ever had my identity stolen, I’d probably think different, but I haven’t.

A law went into effect in Aug/Sept 2018(?) that made it free to freeze/unfreeze. Prior to that it varied by credit bureau.
And there are a lot more than "all 3". At a minimum you should do 5: experian, equifax, transunion, innovis, and NCTUE.

 

[OldShooter]

... DF is running around with a lightning rod in a fraud thunderstorm... sounded like a good idea to have a fraud ambulance nearby.

Yes. It might also be worthwhile to contact your county Adult Protection folks to see if they have any ideas or tricks that will help.

At one point DW was vice-chair of our state's Board on Aging. The numbers they had said that 85% of elders are financially abused at some point. Sadly, the most frequent abusers were children and family. One of the problems with this, too, is that the abused elders are often too ashamed to admit what happened and do not seek help.

 

[Spock]

Yes. It might also be worthwhile to contact your county Adult Protection folks to see if they have any ideas or tricks that will help.

At one point DW was vice-chair of our state's Board on Aging. The numbers they had said that 85% of elders are financially abused at some point. Sadly, the most frequent abusers were children and family. One of the problems with this, too, is that the abused elders are often too ashamed to admit what happened and do not seek help.

As you mention, my only course of action is to literally attempt to trick him.



Thus far I've gotten the following advice: (his PCP, hospital Dr, hospital social worker):
* "He's still making decisions, they're just bad decisions"

* "Move his accounts and hide them from him" (this was also suggested to me by the bank teller when he showed up to close his accts in a SS phone scam)

* "Even though he scored 2 points into the dementia threshold on the SLUMS test and am prescribing 2 dementia drugs, I'm not going to diagnose him with dementia"



From an Elder care lawyer re: getting him declared incompetent and being made his guardian: AFTER a person is declared incompetent:

* "as long as he has testamentary capacity, he can still revoke your POA"
* "can you move and hide his accounts?" after with the lawyer stated:

* "he can still claim ownership and control on any of his accounts he finds"



DF's also currently being exploited by a home health "aide" (HHA).



Sorry for venting and taking this off topic. As an engineer I'm wired to anticipate and prevent/avoid problems. But with this I'm only allowed to sit on the side and watch him play in the storm.

 

[Jerry1]

A law went into effect in Aug/Sept 2018(?) that made it free to freeze/unfreeze. Prior to that it varied by credit bureau.
And there are a lot more than "all 3". At a minimum you should do 5: experian, equifax, transunion, innovis, and NCTUE.

Thanks. I found this link. Good confirmation.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs

I’ve got my Apple Card and have had a heloc so I see no reason to keep my credit open. I think I’ll work on getting it frozen.

Thanks.