Identity Guard Review

Overview

Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, IdentityGuard is the consumer identity theft protection brand of Intersections, Inc. (INTX). Intersections, Inc. has been providing branded and customized identity management solutions in the U.S. and U.K. for over ten years and currently oversees eight million customers. They also provide credit monitoring solutions for a number of major financial organizations, including American Express.

Rationale

Lifelock and other companies that imitate its protection model center their strategies around something that anybody can do for free. Placing and renewing fraud alerts. While studies show that this does help to secure access to your credit file, nobody will argue that it’s a foolproof way to prevent identity theft. In fact, a significant amount of fraud occurs with unauthorized access to existing accounts, something fraud alerts and credit freezes will do absolutely nothing to prevent. Despite all the marketing you might see or hear, there is no way to completely safeguard you from identity fraud.

Identity Guard understands this and focuses all their resources into creating an advanced credit monitoring service. Unlike Lifelock or other competitors, you have unlimited online access to not only your credit report but credit score as well. There are many other cool features to Identity Guard’s Total Protection like the IDVault® and Mobile Lockbox® which will have technophile’s smiling but the core of their service is the advanced credit monitoring.

How Do They Protect You?

Total Protection Dashboard

• Daily Credit Application Scanning

IdentityGuard uses a proprietary system to regularly scan credit application databases for fraudulently submitted credit applications in your name.

• Quarterly Credit Reports

Every three months you will receive an updated 3-in-1 credit report which includes all 3 credit scores. In addition IdentityGuard will monitor your credit file daily with all three credit bureaus for maximum security and will email you if there are any changes to your credit file.

• Scans Internet

Monitors internet black market sites where personal data is bought and sold for your personal information. You will be alerted immediately if any of your information is compromised.

• ZoneAlarm® Internet Security Suite

ZoneAlarm is an award winning security software which includes antivirus, spyware, firewall, spam blocking, and stealth mode all which will greatly reduce the risk of personal; information hijacking on the internet. You will receive the software and updates free during the life of your subscription.

• PRIVACYPROTECT™

PRIVACYPROTECT™ is anti-key logging software which will encrypt every keystroke while you browse the internet to prevent identity thieves from recording your passwords.

• MOBILE LOCKBOX™

This is an innovative product from IdentityGuard which will allow you to remotely secure your sensitive information, personal records, and important financial documents on IdentityGuard’s servers. All this information will be available to you anywhere anytime via your web-enabled cell phone, PDA, or computer.

• Lost Wallet Protection

IdentiyGuard will assist you in canceling all your credit card accounts plus give you access to $2,000 emergency cash from your account.

• $1,000,000 Identity Theft Insurance

This policy is underwritten by Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America and covers expenses related to recovering from an identity theft including wage losses.

• ID Valut

ID Vault looks like a USB memory stick, but its actually a key that padlocks your identity. It protects you against cyber criminals, spyware, and other tricks criminals use to steal your paddwords or account numbers.

What Do They Do Better Than Anybody?

The proprietary technology behind some of the products available to IdentityGuard separates it from most other identity theft protection companies. While other companies focus on fraud alerts and credit freezes, IdentityGuard takes a different approach. Drawing from their years of experience working with top financial institutions, Intersections has developed a sophisticated consumer protection package centered around the Total Protection Dashboard which allows you to monitor your credit file, credit core, and your internet protection services.

Credit Monitoring

Fraud Alerts and Credit Freezes are like locking the door to your valuables. While this approach works well for preventing identity thieves from opening new lines of credit, it does very little to protect your existing accounts from fraud. Reviewing your credit file annually may alert you to fraudulent activity but the damage to your credit file and accounts will already have occurred.

Monitoring your credit file daily, and alerting you to any changes by text message or email allows you to immediately detect any suspicious activity. The near real time monitoring of all your credit reports and credit score only enhances the watchful eye IdentiyGuard keeps over you.

Internet Security

The award winning Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite along with PrivacyProtect provides you with first rate computer and internet security. Also, IdentityGuard scans the internet’s financial black markets daily for your registered information, including Social Security Number, credit cards, and bank accounts.

PC Security

Features like PRIVACY PROTECT and IDVAULT makes your computer virtually impossible for hackers to steal information. No other identity protection service offers this level of sophisticated protection.

What Kind Of Customer Prefers This Service?

A tech savy consumer who can appreciate the propreitary tools IdentityGuard provides to greatly enhance the ability to monitor and control your credit file. The additional first-rate computer and internet protection offers total protection where identity theft victims are most vulnerable, surfing the internet.

Why Should You Consider Anybody Else?

The absence of fraud alerts and credit freezes means your credit file is as vulnerable as before. While IdentityGuard believes the sophisticated credit monitoring services they employ would detect and minimize any fraud, some consumers would like the protection these tools were designed to provide. The use of fraud alerts and credit freezes are central parts of the theft protection strategies of companies like Lifelock, TrustedID, and Equifax.

ProtectMyID.com from Experian offers a more affordable version of three bureau credit monitoring. You can read a detailed ProtectMyID review here.

Give It To Me Straight

The question with IdenityGuard becomes one about credit monitoring versus fraud alerts. If you believe Lifelock’s commercials, the marketing message is fraud alerts are proactive and credit monitoring is reactive. But how proactive are they? Remember that fraud alerts and credit freezes on your file do nothing to protect your existing accounts. If an identity thief has secured enough vital information to open new accounts, doesn’t he have the ability to tamper with your existing accounts as well?

The advantages to be able to recognize and react quickly to any changes in your credit file cannot be understated. Certainly Identity Guard provides a degree of monitoring and control over your information no other company offers. Add the plethora of additional useful products such as ID Vault, Privacy Protect, Mobile LockBox, and the award-winning Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite and you’re talking some serious value for the consumer. Personally, I prefer Identity Guard Total Protection and find all the products and features incredibly useful.

If Lifelock and TrustedID claim to lock the doors to your house with fraud alerts and credit freezes, even they’ll admit there are cracks in that door. IdentityGuard may leave that door open, but they’re keeping a watchful eye if anybody comes in and they’ll text, phone, or email you if they see anything suspicious.

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