If your identity has been compromised, it is important for you to monitor your credit report as well as other data sources that may indicate that your identity is being used by someone other than you.
If your identity has never been compromised, you are still at risk. Data breaches involving your personal information may occur even if you have never placed the information online.
The easiest way to monitor your credit report and other data sources is to subscribe to EverSafe. There is a monthly subscription cost for EverSafe, but the monitoring will occur each and every day; EverSafe includes algorithms to automatically detect and alert you to suspicious activity.
You can also monitor your credit report at no cost annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To do so, visit www.annualcreditreport.com. If you are going to pursue this approach, EverSafe recommends that you pull your Equifax credit report immediately. Follow this up by requesting your Experian credit report four months later and your TransUnion credit report eight months later. Restart the process by reordering your Equifax credit report 12 months later, followed by the Experian credit report 16 months later and your Trans Union credit report 20 months later and so on. This will not enable you to monitor your credit report daily and you may be taking unnecessary risk, but it will save you the monthly subscription cost.
In addition to monitoring your credit report, EverSafe will also monitor the opening of new accounts at www.EarlyWarning.com. If you decide not to subscribe to EverSafe, you may contact Early Warning for a free copy of your consumer report at 1-800-325-7775. Early Warning does not charge consumers a fee for a copy of your consumer report.
LexisNexis provides a free public records search to help you review public records for suspicious activity associated with your identity. The search includes public records with information specific to real estate transactions and ownership data, liens, judgments, bankruptcy records, professional license information and historical addresses. Request a Full File Disclosure by visiting personalreports.lexisnexis.com and fill out the Full File Disclosure Request Form. Once they have verified your identity, all information will be mailed to you.