- Free 15 day trial membership of Intelius ID Protect
to
check out what the service has to offer.
- Full membership costs
$19.95 per month.
- A US-based firm providing a range of customer and business
security solutions.
- An award-winning ID theft protection
service.
- Protect your finances and your good name with the
excelent ID protect service from Intelius.
- A free annual credit
report to check the safety and security of your credit record.
- Credit
Card Scanning - Intelius regularly patrol the black market where ID
thieves buy and sell credit card numbers. If your details are
discovered to be compromised you are immediately informed.
- SSN,
Name and Address Scanning - Similarly, if your social security number, name or address are
found being traded online you are immediately informed.
- Public
Database Scanning - Intelius Monitor hundreds of public record
databases and if they detect anything unusual, that could lead to ID
theft, you are immediately informed.
- Bank Account
Monitoring - have your bank acconunts monitored for unusual
transactions.
- Email Fraud Alerts - protect your credit by
requiring lenders to verify your identity before taking any action that
could put your credit at risk.
- Junk Mail reduction - removes
your name from marketing databases to stop annoying junk mail drops - a
frequent source of ID Theft.
- No more pre-approved credit offers - opt out of pre-approved credit registers to remove your name from
another frequently abused record.
- $25,000 warranty protection to cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with identity
theft.
- Customizable watch lists to ensure that your most
vulnerable financial information is kept safe.
- 24/7 identity
monitoring and alerts.
- Excellent customer service and dedicated
phone support.
Intelius ID Protect is an Identity Theft Protection solution
brought to the market by Intelius, a US firm that has grown out of the
increased need for background checks and better personal data security.
Intelius offers both commercial and consumer solutions, and has grown
into a multi-million dollar corporation. Most of the firm's income
comes from staff background checks (which is the mainstay of its
commercial arm), but the firm has recently started providing Identity
Theft Protection (which it provides directly to the consumer market
using Intelius ID Protect). The whole firm is only 6 years old, one of
the youngest in this category, but it has certainly carved out a
significant and substantial share of the market.
Firstly,
Intelius ID Protect provides all users with a free annual credit
report, compiled in the (fairly commonplace) 3-in-1 format (combining
the efforts of Experian, Equifax and Trans-Union). These reports not
only give you a great indication of your credit rating and financial
situation, but also help you to identify any anomalous transactions or
applications that may be evidence of fraudulent activity. Next,
Intelius ID Protect follows a familiar path by performing daily
searches of public websites, trading websites and public records for
the protected data of
its members (e.g., SSN's, Name, Address, Credit Card Numbers etc.). Finally, users can opt out of junk mail registers and the
pre-approved credit records, so that not only are users freed from
having to endure endless annoying offers of credit cards (and other
financial products), but another avenue for credit fraud is closed down (as
ID thieves often use fake credit offers to obtain identifying details). All of these methods ensure that users get advance notice of any
potential fraud that could have a negative impact on their credit
rating or financial security.
Something that we thought was
particularly disappointing was the size of the service's liability
insurance, which kicks in if the firm were to fail in protecting the
user from identity theft. At just $25,000, this many not cover the expenses incurred by Intelius customers through identity theft, and our experience tells us that this really
doesn't stand up against the substantially larger offerings of other
services (on average $1 million).
While Intelius ID Protect is certainly a viable option
for our users, in that it provides a great quality selection of
features and has a proven (but short) track record for providing
solutions to security problems, we can't help but feel that Intelius ID
Protect is a little expensive. At $19.95 a month, per protected family
member, the service (which is also notably unoriginal) is more than
twice as expensive as that offered by some of the other sites we have
reviewed. We would certainly suggest that our users shop around to get
the best deal out there. That said, Intelius ID Protect does offer a
free 15-day trial membership option, so if Intelius ID Protect does
sound like your sort of service, you can sign up for a free trial by clicking on the button below.
Click the button below to check out Intelius.com for yourself...
