The trend of Identity Theft Monitoring has been fueled in large part by fears of identity theft, which according to the Federal Trade Commission claims more than 700,000 victims annually. Identity Thieves either hijack your existing accounts, running up unauthorized charges, or they use your personal information to open new bogus accounts in your name. You may not know if someone is using your account until you notice charges or cash advances you did not make on your monthly statement.

What is Identity Theft Monitoring?

Identity Theft Monitoring is a solution designed to monitor an individual's personal identity. The main Identity Theft Monitoring purpose is to detect identity theft faster thereby limiting the effects of the fraud before more serious damage can occur.

How does Identity Theft Monitoring work?

Identity Theft Monitoring companies monitor credit data sources at regular intervals. Any changes that are detected whether to an individual's name, address, phone number, date of birth and social security number are scrutinized for authenticity. Whenever a suspicious change is detected the Identity Theft Monitoring Company will send an alert to the monitored subscriber. Upon receipt of such alerts, the monitored subscriber can log in to the Identity Theft Monitoring database and verify the details of the change and, if necessary, take steps to investigate the changes further or resolve the issue.

What types of database activities are monitored in Identity Theft Monitoring?

Monitored activities include:

1. Change of address: Whenever you change your location the Identity Theft Monitoring will send you a alert indicating that your address has changed or it may in turn imply that someone may be tampering with your identity.
   
   
2. Social Security Number Monitoring: Identity thieves often use dubious method of obtaining your Social Security number as a way of stealing other information about you.
   
   
3. Phone Number Changes Monitoring: Identity Theft Monitoring companies periodically verify if your phone number has changed in the database and send you a alert if change has been detected. An alert indicating a phone number change, without your prior knowledge, is another good indicator of potential identity theft.
   
   
4. Name Change Monitoring: Name change is another variable that Identity Theft Monitoring companies will verify across the databases. A name change alert would usually indicate that someone may be trying to manipulate your identity to create a fictional identity or otherwise use your identity for criminal purposes.
   
   
5. Death Check: Identity Theft Monitoring companies verify if someone is falsifying your death and reusing your Social Security Number.
   
   
6. Date of Birth: Identity Theft Monitoring companies check for the consistency of your Date of Birth across the entire monitored database. Any inconsistency in the Date of Birth should trigger an alert that may indicate that someone is using and tampering with your information.

Is Identity Theft Monitoring fool-proof enough to protect you?

Firstly, Identity Theft Monitoring is not a deterrent to identity theft. Identity Theft Monitoring service may help you detect the theft early enough to contain the damage, or it might not. The quality of the Identity Theft Monitoring services varies widely.

• Identity Theft Monitoring don't check all three bureaus.
  Most Identity Theft Monitoring services keep tabs of your credit report at just one credit bureau. Since the three major credit bureaus typically don't share information, your service easily could miss problems that crop up at the other two.
  
  
• Identity Theft Monitoring may not be timely.
  Ideally, you would be notified the instant someone applied for credit in your name, or at least within 24 hours. If the alerts are not send to you in a timely manner or if you fail to receive a sent alert this would still be as problematic as being not monitored at all.
  
  
• Identity Theft Monitoring services are expensive.
  The least costly service can run you bills of up to $10.95 a quarter or $43.80 a year and you get a weekly alert service and a credit report that's updated quarterly. The more typical cost ranges from $50 to $120. To get continual monitoring at all three bureaus, you'd need to shell out about $200 a year.