What do you guys recommend for ID Theft Protection?

[jennypenny]

Your bank or insurance agent can pull a copy for you. Do you have a face-to-face relationship with either of those? If so, explain the situation and see if they'll do it. Usually they will under the guise of pricing a policy or opening a new account.

[disconnected]

It had been a while since I checked my credit report, so I decided to check it out recently... I was surprised to discover that my former spouse had been using my name at her new address (after we split). No open accounts (thankfully), but that definitely set off a red flag. I called the credit bureau and reported to them that I had never resided at that address. The credit bureau was cooperative and said they would remove that address from my record.

But this brings up another great point. Sometimes the identity thief is your best friend. When a marriage ends your best friend can become your worst enemy. I know a guy whose ex wife ran up $30,000 in credit card debt after they split. What a mess. I'd definitely recommend credit monitoring to anyone who is considering a divorce.

[Sclass]

Your bank or insurance agent can pull a copy for you. Do you have a face-to-face relationship with either of those? If so, explain the situation and see if they'll do it. Usually they will under the guise of pricing a policy or opening a new account.

Thanks JP. Will do.

But this brings up another great point. Sometimes the identity thief is your best friend. When a marriage ends your best friend can become your worst enemy. I know a guy whose ex wife ran up $30,000 in credit card debt after they split. What a mess. I'd definitely recommend credit monitoring to anyone who is considering a divorce.

Yeah. We were warned in college not to take it lightly when other students learned our birthdays and SSNs. I actually know a guy who applied for a credit card using an application he filched in the mailroom of the dorm. He and his pals went on a shopping spree. Then he bragged about it. 1993. I guess he was a dumb kid. He manages a team of developers at Google now.

[jennypenny]

Did anyone else get the OPM letter? Are you going to take advantage of the free credit monitoring services? I'm hesitant to give our information to yet another company. What's to stop whoever breached OPM in the first place from going after this place? Besides, the amount of info the hackers got about us goes well beyond any credit service monitoring.

The part that really pisses me off is that if someone had divulged this info accidentally, like by having a laptop stolen, it would be a debriefing nightmare with possibly career-stalling ramifications. But when OPM divulges it, all you get is 'oops' and free credit monitoring.

[RealPerson]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned how to be invisible by JJ Luna, but it is a VERY good overall book. Many tips would help with ID theft protection and privacy overall.

I recall he said to never connect your real place of living and our name on paper. Don't register utilities in your name, use a trust of LLC. New mexico trusts are $50 and a 2 page form of very easy information (name of corp, address, reg agent, etc...) Don't register your vehicle in your name, use a LLC/Trust. Don't borrow money. Those are the key tips I can remember.

I seriously considered doing this. J.J. Luna's person doing the NM LLC warned me that it usually doesn't work. State DMVs will not register a vehicle without a form of government issued ID. Your LLC can own the car, but your name is still associated with the title. I think most of J.J. Luna's advice pre-dates 9-11. The government has become far more interested in someone's true identity and where they live, so many of the tricks don't work anymore. I think privacy simply does not exist anymore.

[enigmaT120]

Did anyone else get the OPM letter? Are you going to take advantage of the free credit monitoring services? I'm hesitant to give our information to yet another company. What's to stop whoever breached OPM in the first place from going after this place? Besides, the amount of info the hackers got about us goes well beyond any credit service monitoring.

The part that really pisses me off is that if someone had divulged this info accidentally, like by having a laptop stolen, it would be a debriefing nightmare with possibly career-stalling ramifications. But when OPM divulges it, all you get is 'oops' and free credit monitoring.

I got two of them. But at least they apparently didn't get my fingerprints. Now I have the ID monitoring service through two separate outfits. But only for 3 years. They should pay for it for life.

What happens when a private company's personnel data get stolen?

[unno2002]

Retired Army civil service here. The wife and I “finally” got our OPM letter a little over a week ago. Signed up for the monitoring, checked our credit reports, didn’t see anything unusual. Friends suggested “Lifelock”. I read thru their website, and although it doesn’t impress me, I may be missing something.

Concur with the comment that that OPM / Uncle should provide at least monitoring as a lifetime benefit. If everything that used to be in my paper personnel record got stolen electronically, I worry about what someone could do with the information…

[ether]

I've looked into these "credit monitoring" services and was extremely unimpressed. They simply message you when a new line of credit is opened and will handle the process of dealing with your banks customer service when you lose your identity. These are all things a normal person can do.

[jennypenny]

The wife and I “finally” got our OPM letter a little over a week ago.

We'd heard that the longer it took to get the letter, the more information was stolen. That appears to be the case. According to the letter we received, they got everything in the file. They said we'll get another letter because they aren't sure what the risks are wrt the more personal stuff.

I agree they should extend the ID protection to cover us for life. Who knows what someone could do with a stolen fingerprint 10-20 years from now?

The more I think about it, the angrier I get. All of our personal information is now out on the interwebs ... forever. I'll always be waiting for the day someone uses it.

[tylerrr]

yes, I got the OPM letter too with the offer for the credit monitoring. I couldn't sign up for it online. THere was something wrong with the website. I'm going to call them instead and do it over phone if I can....

[peerifloori]

Did anyone else get the OPM letter? Are you going to take advantage of the free credit monitoring services? I'm hesitant to give our information to yet another company. What's to stop whoever breached OPM in the first place from going after this place? Besides, the amount of info the hackers got about us goes well beyond any credit service monitoring.

The part that really pisses me off is that if someone had divulged this info accidentally, like by having a laptop stolen, it would be a debriefing nightmare with possibly career-stalling ramifications. But when OPM divulges it, all you get is 'oops' and free credit monitoring.

Yup. I got that letter. I feel kind of bummed to know that my fingerprints were part of the data breached. Oops.

It seems like it is increasingly difficult to prevent these data breaches. Maybe there is a solution on the other end of the problem, creating a different system of authentication/verification of personal data. But that's probably cost-prohibitive rather than money-making.