Protect Your Identity with LifeLock

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LifeLock Facebook. All opinions are 100% mine.

As we rely more heavily on the Internet for our daily life, we are more susceptible to a new and dangerous kind of crime--identity theft. Anyone who has fallen victim to identify theft knows how detrimental it could be to lose your own identity, including your social security number, credit card numbers, bank account info, and even access to your emails. The consequences are usually far more serious than the loss of physical property because the damages may last a long time, such as a poor credit score that takes years to repair. It is necessary to be more proactive and have your identify protected by an effective defense system like LifeLock.

LifeLock monitors your identity around the clock and safeguards your vital personal information through alerts of potential threats--both credit and non-credit related. It also provides comprehensive recovery services to help you minimize damages in the event of an incident of identity theft.

Around this time last year, one of my primary email accounts got hacked and all of a sudden I found myself unable to log in and everyone on my contact list received a scam email claiming that I was robbed and stranded in a foreign country and needed a large sum of cash by wire transfer. I panicked as that email account is associated with my bank accounts, PayPal account, and my tax returns. Fortunately I was able to regain access through Google support, but it is hard to tell how much of my personal information is already in the hands of the hacker. How hack friendly is your password? Read this infographic to find out!

If you're not yet convinced about the danger of identity theft, check out the stats yourself:
• Households earning $100k + per year have the highest identity fraud rate at 7.4%
• The average cost per person of having identities stolen is $1,513
• 11.6 million adults were victims of identity fraud in 2011 and a total of $18 billion was lost.

Alarming stats for social media/ smartphone users that have experience identity fraud:
• 6.6% of victims are smartphone owners
• 6.8% of victims are social media users who click on the applications
• 8.2% of victims are social media users who have “checked in” using their smartphone GPS
• 10.1% of victims are LinkedIn users

Please seriously consider signing up for a LifeLock membership to protect yourself from the risk of identity theft. Follow LifeLock on Facebook  to get more tips that may help you outsmart identify thieves.