A number of commercial services and products can help you regain your good name. ID Analytics has a free online program that will score your risk of identity theft through a statistical analysis of such things as your name, Social Security number, phone number, date of birth, and address. It has tips on how to keep your identity from being stolen—or keep it from being stolen again, causing you to immediately repeat everything you have just done.

My own website is Identity Theft Prevention and Survival (www.identitytheft.org), with dozens of pages of free education, resources, and guides, as well as information about my other books and educational materials. We provide e-mail and telephone guidance (1-800- 725-0807), representation, expert testimony, training, and consulting.

You’ve probably heard advertisements from companies claiming to be able to completely protect your identity by “locking” or “freezing” your credit report. But as you saw early on in the book, this is easy to do yourself and costs nothing. As far as seeing what is new in your credit report, know that, in addition to the two free credit reports, you are entitled, as a victim pursuant to federal law (some state laws entitle you to more), to a free copy annually from each of the CRAs, as well as your free public-records search and other specialty consumer reports from companies like ChoicePoint. Here’s a partial list of the reports you can get for free annually:

C.L.U.E. Reports for home & auto insurance:

MIB medical report:

Tenant reports:

Check writing reports:

There are also identity restoration services that say they can help you recover your identity. This works by your giving their fraud resolution staff a limited power of attorney to act on your behalf. Most of them only deal with financial identity theft. You will need to provide them your sensitive data, including your SSN, credit-card numbers, and credit reports, and trust that they will protect that information. Because the facts of the fraud are really known only to you, you will still be heavily involved in the process. I have consulted with some very reputable companies in this area that have helped victims to resolve their identity-theft issues. But before you agree to pay for any of these services, read the fine print in any guarantee. The warranty may actually state that they will spend the equivalent time of a million dollars at some undisclosed rate per hour, rather than give you the funds. Some companies do offer you identity-theft insurance that reimburses you for out-of-pocket costs, time off from work, and limited attorney fees if you are sued.

To find out more about the various identity rehabilitation services, visit the non-profit Consumer Federation of America (www.consumerfed. org) and read the report “To Catch a Thief: Are Identity Theft Services Worth the Cost?” Also look at the resources in Appendix B to compare services and make up your own mind. Also visit www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/idtheft/idt05.shtmand and read “To Buy or Not To Buy: Identity Theft Spawns New Products and Services To Help Minimize Risk.”