To make a very long story short, someone I know is currently being prosecuted on multiple felony counts for, among other things, stealing a relative’s identity. Guilt is really not questioned as far as I know (there is video of the perpetrator using credit cards obtained by using the victim’s SS#), though court proceedings are still ongoing.
The victim has already put a credit freeze on her record. But obviously, other family members of the perpetrator have not yet been victims of identity theft, and would like to keep it that way. They know they are at risk, because the perpetrator may have managed to obtain their SS# at some point in the past, too.
All I have been able to find so far is how to put a 90-day fraud alert on a credit record, but what can be done that is more permanent? And preferably less of a PITA in terms of the SS# holder being to legitimately obtain credit down the line? It looks like many things require having already been a victim of identity theft.
There are several companies which you can pay to help you with this sort of stuff, especially if you contact them before any damage has been done, which seems to be exactly what you’re looking for. “LifeLock” is the one which I’ve heard the most advertising from. This is a link to their article on Wikipedia; it you’re interested, it has a link to the company itself.
You should receive a letter or postcard which explains how to make the alert permanent. That is what a national credit reporting agency is required to do: tell you how to make it permanent.
Other overlooked option: Locking your credit report via a File Freeze or Security Freeze. You get a pin to unlock it should you need to apply for credit. It’s more elaborate than that, but this is THE way to go.
EDIT: LifeLock is like Jiffy Lube: You can do it yourself for a lot less, with less junk tossed in, but you certainly can opt to pay them to do something you don’t want to.
Thanks, guys…Security Freeze sounds very effective, but also like it’s a huge pain in the ass. Am I understanding correctly that one would have to pay a fee every time one wanted/needed one’s credit checked, or possibly even every time one wanted to make an online credit card transaction? Is there a slightly less nuclear option?
I was going to say, I work in H/R and on some candidates we will run a credit check and some come across problematic and usually mean that the applicant has locked or done something to the report.
It’s not a big deal but be aware if you exercise an option like this, so that an employer will either know or said employer may simply skip over you if it’s too much a bother
For laughs: Remember when LifeLock did ads where they showed a truck driving around with the LifeLock CEO’s SSN number on it? And they would come out and tell you his SSN number? 'Cause, ya know, LifeLock is so darn effective that the CEO was safe, even with you knowing his name and SSN.
Yeah, well, from what I understand his credit was such a train wreck that you could not get credit with name and SSN if you tried everything in your power, and despite that, some people had stolen his identity for other reasons (other than credit). Some were prosecuted, etc. It was a big mess for him.
Placing an alert on your file kicks your file out of automatic approvals, and forces it to be manually reviewed or handled differently for scoring, etc.
If you apply for credit, jobs, etc, and you opted to Freeze the file, you have to unlock it completely or unlock it for a particular end user.
