Identity theft is a huge concern these days.  People are getting ultra protective of their data, and rightly so — thieves are getting more and more resourceful about stealing your personal information.

Unfortunately, this fear just opens up the door to a more legal approach to relieving you of your money: identity fraud services such as LifeLock.  LifeLock charges a fee that may seem nominal, but can really add up over time — usually $10 or more a month.  And what do they do?  Stuff that you can easily do for free — such as filing (and regularly renewing) a 90-day fraud alert on your account with the credit bureaus.

Although identity theft is serious business, the truth is that it isn’t as common as you might think.  The article linked to above reports that only about 3 percent of the adult population has had any type of identity theft, and only 0.8 percent has been the most dangerous kind, where thieves steal your information and use it to open brand-new accounts without your information.  The rest of the time, it’s just thieves using your credit card numbers, which is less costly and easier to catch.

As always, the best way to protect yourself from identity fraud is not to pay someone else to do it, but to take precautions in your own life.  Always shred your sensitive documents, even junk mail (thieves love the pre-approved credit card applications that most of us just toss), with a good paper shredder such as a Fellowes Powershred shredder.  The best high security shredders shred both ways, obliterating each document into tons of tiny pieces of paper.  You can also eliminate paper financial statements by requesting e-statements.  You should also educate yourself on the dangers of spoof emails (emails scammers send to acquire your financial account information) and be careful about where and on what channels you log into online accounts.

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