1. Our adolescent son started to receive credit card offers.  I immediately froze his credit (and ours), but doing this for a minor is much more difficult than doing so for an adult.  Learn more here.
2. That same son clicked an online ad that said, “virus free software” and, his laptop was promptly infected with a virus.  He was shocked.  We, not so much.
3. Each of us received countless notifications that our personal information had been part of a breach.  Anthem. Equifax. Target. Each offered some sort of protection, but none of it was automatic and all of it was temporary.
4. Upon filing our 2019 taxes, we learned that our teenage daughter had been claimed as a dependent on someone else’s taxes. This was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, so there was no one to call.  We were told to fill out a form, submit it to the IRS, and wait. We are still waiting. It’s now December.
5. Later during Covid, several friends learned that fraudulent unemployment claims had been submitted using their credentials. The thieves attempted to route unemployment payments to their own bank accounts, made possible by stolen social security numbers.
6. Each and every one of our alma maters informed us that the software used to manage fundraising and track donations had been hacked. Some informed us immediately. Others took months.

Believe it or not, we have at least six more reasons, but I’ll save those for another day.

Don’t wait until your ID is stolen. Preempt the theft now, save yourself a big headache, lots of time, and perhaps a lifetime of damage.