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Identity Theft Protection: Can You Trust Anyone?

Many of us would like to believe that identity theft protection is a "what if" insurance policy. Somewhat like accident insurance – nice to have but you're probably not going to need it. In reality, we're more likely to become the victims of identity theft than we are an accident. Why? Because identity theft is a crime that pays, and even those we trust (such as our mortgage companies) can put our information at risk.

Mortgagor Information For Sale

It seems that a high-ranking executive at Countrywide Financial Corp. was selling customer information to the highest bidder, so to speak. The individual in question would download the personal and financial data of 20,000 customers per week and sell the information to a third party, putting those people at risk of identity theft.

How long did this go on? For two years. More than 2 million people are now at risk of identity theft. Those two million people can do everything right in the world of identity theft protection and they're still going to run the risk of waking up one morning to see that someone has taken out a credit card in their name.

A Meager Offering

Countrywide is trying to step up to the plate by offering affected customers two free years of identity theft protection services. That's a small price to pay for violating someone's privacy. We can all, however, learn a lesson from this.

Moving Forward

How many people have their personal information sold or stolen and never realize it? There will be no offer of free identity theft protection for them. Because of this, it's important to secure identity theft protection services for ourselves, without relying on "Big Brother" to watch out for us.

Do your homework. Read consumer reviews and visit comparison websites like StarReviews.com to see which identity theft protection services offer the most. Then choose one of them. Remember that, in the end, the only one you can trust to protect your identity is yourself.

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