51. What is the difference between credit card theft and identity theft?
Credit card theft is when someone steals your credit card and runs up charges. Identity theft is when someone steals your personal information (social security number, date of birth, name, etc.) and uses it to open a new line of credit, gain employment or even establish citizenship.
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52. What’s the difference between fraud alerts and a credit freeze?
A credit freeze locks down all of your personal information making it impossible for anyone to open a line of credit in your name, including you. There are also fees involved with many credit freezes. When you place a freeze, you pay a fee. From there on, if you want to open any new line of credit (loan, credit card, cell phone) the freeze must be lifted; there will be a fee for that as well.
Currently 33 states and the District of Columbia offer the credit freeze option, but if you are not in one of them, you cannot do this. Everyone can subscribe to LifeLock.
53. Why doesn’t LifeLock offer credit monitoring?
Credit monitoring will alert you after someone has stolen or used your identity. LifeLock wants to protect you before that ever happens. We have found that once our systems are in place, credit monitoring provides no additional benefit.
54. Why does everyone recommend credit monitoring and not a service like LifeLock?
Credit monitoring is the old technology, but it is something with which people are familiar. LifeLock represents the new generation in Identity protection.
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55. Credit watch services have come into prominence thanks to the many breaches that have been publicized. What exactly is a credit watch, and what benefit does such a service offer the consumer?
Credit Monitoring (or a watch) is the credit bureau selling the consumer their own information. After there has been a change on your credit report, the bureau notifies you in 24 to 72 hours that there has been a change. It is then the consumer’s responsibility to check the information for accuracy and by the way, if they find that it is a case of identity theft, the consumer is responsible for any losses, expenses and has to spend the time to clean up the mess. The Bureaus do nothing to actually prevent the crime of identity theft, nor do they help fix the problem.
56. How does a credit watch service work, and are there significant differences between the three major services (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax)?
All three work basically the same, but it should be noted that each bureau only notifies you when there has been a change on their credit report, not the other two
57. When an organization offers a free credit watch subscription in response to a breach that may have affected a consumer, is the service different than what he or she would receive if they subscribed on their own?
Monitoring may give the victim of the data breach a false sense of security. Again, the bureaus do nothing to actually stop the crime before it happens and do nothing to help after a person has been victimized. They only provide quick notification of a change, nothing more.
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58. What is the consumer’s responsibility once a credit watch service is initiated? Is it a “turn it on and it works” proposition, or must the service be actively managed by the consumer to have any real effect?
The burden is on the consumer. They must check the credit report after they have been notified of a change and then they are responsible for cleaning up any mess of identity theft. The FTC says it is an average of 177 hours over two years, if you can clean it up at all.
59. Are there hidden costs, dangers, etc. to working with the credit agencies?
What should consumers know that might be otherwise difficult to find out on their own?
Consumers should know that the credit reports you buy will not include any “non-match” name and social security numbers. That means that if someone steals your social security number for employment, but uses their name, you will not see the accounts on your credit report. However, your credit score could be affected and lenders would be able to see the data.
