Are Credit Monitoring Services Worth It?
Summary: Krebs on Security reports that credit monitoring services offered after data breaches mostly alert consumers to new credit applications rather than block them, with Gartner fraud analyst Avivah Litan calling them "basically PR vehicles for most of the breached companies." The piece details the author's own experience with AllClearID, which alerted him to several fraudulent Capital One credit applications that were denied but still produced score-dinging hard pulls, and notes that fraud alerts must be renewed every 90 days and can also be filed with a fourth bureau, Innovis.
Why it matters: Litan notes that identity theft insurance advertised as up to $1 million largely duplicates coverage consumers already have under law and card zero-liability rules, and that if someone takes out a mortgage in your name, "nobody covers that."
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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