You’ve heard of identity theft, but what does it mean? Identity theft is officially defined as the deliberate assumption of another person’s identity. Going far beyond credit card fraud, identity theft is a rapidly growing crime that most people will face at some point in their lives. In practice, it is a crime where a criminal acquires and uses the victim’s personal information — such as a national ID card — to take out loans, obtain new credit cards, rent an apartment, purchase a car, run up debt, file for bankruptcy, and other criminal activities. Identity theft can not only damage someone’s creditworthiness, it can also create unknown criminal records that can result in the identity theft victim being wrongly arrested or denied employment upon a routine background check.

The term “financial fraud” covers common credit card, cheque, and debit card fraud. When a criminal uses your credit cards or debit cards to make a purchase, he or she usually hasn’t assumed your identity. Recovering from financial fraud is relatively easy, since most creditors don’t hold you liable for fraudulent charges.

A data breach is an incident where personally identifiable information (PII), such as an individual’s name and national ID card, medical record, or financial record is potentially put at risk due to exposure.

Generally, personal information such as name, email, passwords, national ID card, medical record, as well as financial information like debit and credit card numbers are taken when a breach occurs.

Not necessarily, but consumers should take measures to ensure their PII is not used maliciously. IDnotify enables you to do that.

Enrolling in IDnotify takes just minutes. During the enrollment process, you will be asked to supply some brief personal information so we can confirm that it is secure, and ensure that we monitor the right data.

We maintain a highly secure environment with best-in-class security measures and policies in place to ensure the utmost secure handling of all data.

Use IDnotify to monitor both your financial and public record information and look for:

• Unfamiliar criminal records, court records, address information or bankruptcies
• Unexplained charges or withdrawals
• Failing to receive bills or other mail — this may signal an address change initiated by an identity thief
• Being served court papers or arrest warrants for actions you did not commit
• Receiving credit cards for which you did not apply
• Being denied credit for no apparent reason
• Receiving calls or letters from debt collectors or businesses about merchandise or services you did not buy

Although any of these indications could be a result of a simple clerical error, you should not assume that there’s been a mistake and do nothing. Always follow up with the business or institution to find out.

IDnotify members may contact our specialists, anytime.

This data comes from public and criminal Internet properties including forums and websites, IRC channels, search engine queries, social networks, peer-to-peer sources, hidden and anonymous web services, malware samples, botnets, and torrent sources.

Your first report will include data from the previous 8 years. This means that the Internet surveillance tool searches the prior 8 years of data records for a match to the personal information we are monitoring for you.

IDnotify tracks Internet activity for signs that the personal information you’ve asked us to monitor is being traded or sold. If our surveillance technology has discovered information on the Internet that is a match to your monitored identity elements, you will be notified and provided with clear instructions about what to do next.

It is safe to assume that if some of your information is compromised, all of it is. Even if only some of your personal information has been detected, it is recommended that you contact support — and/or immediately make a change to your account information yourself, if possible. For example, immediately change the password to your email account, and call us.

As specialists, we’ll help you determine if an identity theft event has occurred and guide you through any necessary restoration activities. We may take the following actions on your behalf:

• Contact your credit card issuer or banking institution
• File a police report
• Review your credit report for indications of identity theft
• Place a fraud alert or security freeze with the three credit bureaus