You may have read in the news last month that federal prosecutors charged 11 people with stealing more than 41 million credit- and debit-card numbers. That's one big pile of numbers and clear evidence that identity theft is on the rise. It's difficult to imagine that putting 11 of these thugs away is going to do much to stop the spread of identity theft, but we can be optimistic. "The problem is that thieves will always be one step ahead," says Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, a company that provides identity theft protection.

Protecting your identity is a lot like changing the oil in your car. You need to do it regularly. Protecting credit requires routine maintenance and monitoring of credit reports. It's not that difficult to check your credit. It involves going to www.AnnualCreditReport.com and requesting one of your three free reports every four months.

Each time you request a report, you should go over it carefully, verifying that every entry reflects the truth about you, your credit and the way that you have managed your finances. If there is an error, such as a credit card you did not apply for, you immediately need to report it to the issuing credit bureau. By law, they have 30 days to respond either with proof that the information is true or notification that it has been removed.

There are services out there that will monitor your credit for you, alerting you the moment anyone (including you) attempts to apply for new credit in your name. There are also identity theft prevention companies that, for a fee, will look after things for you.

More than a year ago, my husband and I signed up with LifeLock. Right away, LifeLock requested fraud alerts on credit files. Because these alerts are only good for 90 days, they repeat this every three months for us automatically. They also instructed every junk mail sender in the country to take our names off their lists. Within three months, we stopped getting junk mail at our home.

I am aware that some disgruntled customers have participated in class action suits against LifeLock. I contacted Davis about this, and he responded by saying: "Nearly 3 percent of Americans are victims of identity theft each year. With over one million LifeLock members, you could expect LifeLock to have 30,000 victims, but only 105 individuals have been victims of identity theft. In fact, among the 105 who have reported an identity theft, every single one has been covered under the LifeLock service guarantee."

In the year that I've been with LifeLock, my identity has been protected completely. Sure, I could do this work myself, checking my credit reports every four months and following up on any errors I find. I even could request a fraud alert every 90 days on each of my credit files. So can you, and I hope you are doing that.

But if you are as busy as I am and also somewhat forgetful, you might want to think about signing up with a company such as LifeLock. I'm getting peace of mind and no junk mail for just $88 per year.

Mary Hunt is the founder of DebtProofLiving.com and author of 17 books, including "Debt-Proof Living." You can e-mail her at mary@everydaycheapskate.com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, P.O. Box 2135, Paramount, CA 90723. To find out more about Mary Hunt and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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