Online safety - ID Web sites
Ever wonder how at risk you are of becoming a victim of identity theft? There are two new Web sites available to show you.
Nearly 15 million Americans fell victim to ID theft last year and now Stolenidsearch.com and Myidscore.com provide a snapshot of your vulnerability, giving you a heads up when you just might need it most.
Scott Mitic, CEO of TrustedID, the company that runs Stolenidsearch.com, says his company gets “information from companies and individuals who can see into this black market.”
The site reaches deep into the cyber underworld to see if your information is out there.
“We have binoculars that let us see far and wide into all of that information that’s being bought and sold and traded by thieves around the world,” he says.
There are 50 million names in their database. To see if yours is one of them, you fill out some basic information like name and address. The site then compares that with its list of compromised identities.
If your name is found, you may be at risk.
The second Web site Myidscore.com, owned by ID Analytics, gathers information from a different pool of resources: companies and corporations.
The site looks for unusual activity that could suggest fraud.
Rachel James of ID Experts says that the site “kind of gives you an idea of how murky the information is and it’s using data points and applications trying to determine if there are discrepancies (or) things that don’t add up,” she says.
For those who check to see if they are at risk: one percent will be at high risk, five to eight percent will be at moderate risk, and the rest will be at low risk.
The cost? Nothing, both services are free.
James wants to stress that the sites are good tools to keep an eye on your identity but, “it’s more of an indicator of which way do you need to go with your security solutions,” she says.
And whether you score high or low on the risk meter, you still need to be vigilant.
That means you’ll need to update the security settings on your personal computer often and check your credit report every few months.
For more information and a link to a free credit report: