Identity theft comes in many forms. Children and adults can be victims of identity theft.  Each year there are over 9 million identity victims.  1 million of these victims are minor children. The worst part is that we often don’t notice a problem until we need to buy a car, house, or get a college loan. The clean-up process can be costly and time-consuming.  

Dana Mantilia is the founder of Identity Protection Planning.  Dana grew up in the car business.  She was running and still oversees her family’s car dealership today.  In 2014 they wanted to open an insurance agency so they could offer insurance to their customers, and shortly after in 2017 she decided to get into the identity theft world and business. 

Identity Protection Planning helps Americans protect themselves, their family, and businesses from identity theft and cybercrime. Identity Protection Planning was established to help educate, organize, and protect folks against identity theft. Her team established a user-friendly B2B software platform that allows agents, advisors, employers, and association managers to offer Identron identity theft protection plans to their clients, employees, or members.

We talk about identity theft, data breaches, and best practices for protecting you, your family, and your business.  Dana shares several practical tips and best practices that you can put in place today to help protect against identity theft. 

Show Notes:

• [00:32] - Dana shares how she got into the identity theft business.  
• [02:58] - Often with identity theft cases, you have to pay first to start the cleaning process. It can be expensive to start the process and maybe you will get some of that money back later.   
• [03:59] - What is identity theft? Identity theft is someone using someone’s social security number to get a loan, a job, get credit, or file taxes.  It often happens with children’s information. 
• [05:35] - The best thing to do with a child’s social security number is to freeze their credit.  
• [06:32] - Don’t give out your social security number or your child’s unless absolutely necessary. Be careful not to give your personal information out online.  
• [07:34] - Informed delivery with the post office is a great service to make sure all your mail actually makes it to you.
• [08:18] - It is very important to have different passwords for different accounts. 
• [09:02] - Dana suggests getting a different email to associate with all financial accounts.  Use a password manager app with more complex passwords.  
• [11:15] - Stop doing Facebook quizzes.  Identity thieves actually create some of these quizzes.  They often ask questions to figure out security question answers. 
• [13:42] - Identity theft prevention service helps you with forms you need to fill out, government agencies you need to contact, and they help you along the process if your identity was stolen.   
• [15:45] - Keep close tabs and don’t give out your driver’s license number, medical insurance card, and birth date unless absolutely necessary.  
• [16:57] - Everybody should have either a fingerprint lock, gesture, or passcode on their phone because we are logged into most of our accounts.  If you lose that phone, they can change your passwords and log-in credentials.    
• [17:53] - Use two-factor identification is a great security measure to protect your accounts. 
• [18:18] - On Google and Apple phones, you can enable a service that allows you to remotely wipe your phone.  
• [19:33] - On your phone, you can see which apps have access to your photos, microphones, contacts, and location. 
• [20:57] - One time per year on each of the three different credit bureaus you can run your credit for free.  
• [21:33] - Identity theft protection services and insurance are a valuable service because it is something we are not good at and don’t want to spend the time doing those things if we can even remember to do them.  
• [22:57] - Most children are getting social security numbers right when they are born.  As soon as you get your hands on your child’s social security number, you should be freezing it.  

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review. 

[bctt tweet="“Your identity is great until it is messed up. The challenges identity theft can bring are monumental.” - Chris Parker" username="easypreypodcast"]

Links and Resources:

• Podcast Web Page
• Facebook Page
• whatismyipaddress.com
• Easy Prey on Instagram
• Easy Prey on Twitter
• Easy Prey on LinkedIn
• Easy Prey on YouTube
• Easy Prey on Pinterest
• Identity Protection Planning
• Identron
• Identron on Facebook
• Identity Protection Planning on YouTube
• Dana on LinkedIn
• Data Breaches with Troy Hunt
• SSA.gov