| There are many important areas that consumers must | | | | adjust them for maxim identity theft prevention and |
| master to protect their identities. Some areas fall into | | | | detection. |
| the human behavior category while others fall within | | | | The second category where consumers must gain |
| the market solutions category for automation. | | | | knowledge is in the market solutions area. Most identity |
| As the owners of our own identities, we are partially | | | | theft services are used to automate certain |
| responsible for protecting our identities, or in other | | | | processes in our identity protection efforts. For |
| words, avoiding careless actions that place our | | | | example, we can automate placement of credit fraud |
| identities at risk. One area of concern is the credit | | | | alerts and monitoring of our identity and related |
| cards where the average person owns too many | | | | changes. Recently, some identity theft service |
| credit cards reaching sometimes 8 to 10 credit cards. | | | | providers have been advertising for their services |
| We must remember that owning one additional credit | | | | while mentioning free credit reports, however, they fail |
| card proportionally increases the identity theft risks. Or, | | | | to mention that consumers can get free credit reports |
| individuals create so many PINs that they have to | | | | from because of recent changes in consumer laws. |
| write them down to later remember and unfortunately | | | | You should never pay for credit reports, period. Now, if |
| sometimes place their written passwords next to their | | | | you sign up for automated services and you get free |
| credit cards further helping the identity criminals in their | | | | copies as a bonus, that's fine. But you should never |
| quest for hard cash. Therefore, it is very important for | | | | subscribe to a service to just get copies of your credit |
| consumers to understand the risks of their actions and | | | | reports. |