Identity theft is a common cause of anxiety in modern society, and it’s pretty justifiable. According to a recent survey from US News, almost three quarters of adults have experienced at least one case of identity theft, and 27% have experienced more than one. In 2022 there were more than 1.1 million reports of identity theft, costing Americans a total of $8.8 billion dollars with a median of $650. One-in-five respondents reported that they continue to suffer financial consequences to this day. It’s no wonder that a multi-billion-dollar industry has sprung up around protecting against identity theft. But does it make sense to pay for an identity theft protection service? Or is it just snake oil?
Data breaches are so common, and so many people have been caught in them, why bother paying for ID protection? It’s granted a year at a time (for whatever that might be worth) for nothing to everybody caught in it. At this point, we may as well try to leave all those years of ID theft monitoring to our grandkids.