BiggerPockets

I use LifeLock.com

It's about $10 a month, or $100 per year. Technically you can do all the same things yourself for free, but it's a hassle. They setup fraud alerts on your accounts to ensure nothing new can be opened under your name withouth your approval first. Works well for me. Check out thier website to learn more.

Preventing it....ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE, do you realize there is a site where you can go online pay 15 bux..yes 15 and purchase ANYONE IN THE COUNTRY drivers info and then take it to the dmv and get a drivers license issued to you in their name!! it doesnt matter what you do to prevent it, YOUR INFORMATION IS PUBLIC, where you work, where you went to school, your hospital, they all have your information.!!! nothing you can do about their data bases, your ssn and your shredder play no part to this epidemic... yes it is the fastest growing crime in the world right now, but less than 25 percent of it is finanacial, and most identity theft protection will only cover financial, and by cover i mean monitor, when the identity is stolen, they will send you a kit that will literally take you hundreds of hours to restore your identity! Threre is one company out there, KROLL, they are the leading risk management company in the world and are " THE ONLY IDT PROTECTION THAT CAN DO COMPLETE RESTORATION ON YOUR IDENTITY FOR ALL 5 TYPES OF IDT! A company called Prepaid Legal is contracted with KROLL right now selling a monthly membership through them as well as other sorts of protection for as little as 12 dollars a month!

JUST AN FYI FOR ANYBODY WITH LIFELOCK THINKING THEY ARE PROTECTED...LIFELOCKS CEO JUST HAD HIS IDENTITY STOLEN IN FORTWORTH TEXAS A MAN CASHED A CHECK IN HIS NAME!

If anyone is interested in protecting themselves or positioning themselves in front of the next trend of this huge growing problem of IDT then contact me.
Ian_Rebello@Yahoo.com

I was actually just looking into this last week. One of my renters received a preapproved credit card offer to the rental house. I have opted not to received preapproved credit offers, so the mail was illegal.

I am leery of things like LifeLock as they only monitor your credit and alert you once something happens. From what I know most agencies only report to your credit monthly. This is far too long for me.

Something that the three credit bureaus don't advertise is their credit freeze program. They don't advertise this because they make good money selling your info to card companies. They are required by most states to offer this and they decided to offer it to every state. Basically you send one of the big three a utility bill and copy of your driver's license. They in turn lock your credit and give you a pin number that is needed to access your credit. This way no one can inquire about your credit or open credit in your name without the pin. There is generally a fee each time someone looks at your credit with the pin. In my state it is $15 to lock the credit and $10 for each inquiry. Well worth it for the peace of mind if you ask me.