National Identity Protection Center Review

Products

NIPC customers enjoy the following services:

Keylogging Defense System™ – This feature combats keylogging viruses by encrypting every keystroke customers make on their computers and then sending these encryptions directly to an open browser. Customers can thus engage in personal communications and e-commerce with confidence, knowing they’ve removed a serious danger to their personal information.

Identity Monitoring This feature securely and unobtrusively monitors both past and present risks to customers’ identity. In addition, this feature implements the latest technology as well as a SNAPD identity blueprint in order to generate actionable identity alerts any time there arises a significant risk to customers’ Social Security number, name, address, phone number, or date of birth. Major bank and retail credit cards; wireless carrier applications; loans (mortgage, auto, payday); checking accounts and check re-orders; utility accounts; DMV, real estate, court, criminal, and Social Security records — all fall under NIPD Identity Monitor’s scrutiny so as to provide customers with robust, proactive defense against identity theft.

Identity Theft Restoration – This feature places at customers’ disposal privacy advocates who function as individual case managers in order to perform the following actions on customers’ behalf:

• Investigating and confirming fraudulent activity (known, unknown, and potentially complicated additional sources of identity theft);
• Completing and dispatching customized, pre-populated, state-specific “Fraud Packets” via certified mail with pre-paid return instructions;
• Placing phone calls, sending electronic notifications, and preparing appropriate documentation on customers’ behalf, including dispute letters for defensible complaints to any and all appropriate state agencies and financial institutions;
• Issuing fraud alerts and victim statements when necessary with the three consumer credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), the Federal Trade Commission, the Social Security Administration, and the U.S. Postal Service;
• Submitting Special Limited Power of Attorney and ID Theft Affidavit to involved creditors for card cancellation and new card issuance.
• Contacting, managing, and escalating issues with affected agencies, creditors, financial institutions, to reinforce customers’ rights;
• Assisting customers’ with notifying local law enforcement authorities in order to file the appropriate official reports;
• Utilizing real-time access to public records reports including DMV, criminal, address changes, liens, and judgments for further investigation where applicable;
• Bringing customers peace of mind and resolution of key issues as swiftly as possible;
• Supplying customers with a “Case Completion Kit” that includes copies of documentation, correspondence, forms, and letters for their personal records.

The many services featured by NIPC’s Identity Theft Restoration add layers of solid protection to customers’ identities.

Lost or Stolen Credit Card Assistance / Document Recovery Services – This feature enlists privacy advocates to assist customers in the event that they misplace or have stolen their credit cards. These privacy advocates assist customers by:

• Consulting with customers to determine the severity of the potential identity theft event;
• Obtaining credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion;
• Arranging via teleconference contact between credit card companies and customers;
• Canceling customers’ compromised credit cards;
• Requesting replacement cards for customers;
• Placing fraud alerts with all three major credit bureaus on customers’ behalf;
• Assisting customers with interpreting their credit reports;
• Providing daily ID monitoring for six months in order to facilitate the prevention of any additional identity fraud;
• Providing customers with credit dispute assistance;
• Assisting customers with additional lost items, such as driver’s license, and library and other membership cards.

Identity Theft Insurance – NIPC offers customers $25,000 of identity theft insurance coverage underwritten by a nationally recognized Insurance Carrier with an “A” or better AM Best Rating. This coverage helps to offset some of the cost of restoring customers’ identity to its original status by:

• Reimbursing lost wages up to $500.00 a week for a maximum of four weeks;
• Re-filing loans;
• Covering defense costs for certain civil and criminal lawsuits;
• Reimbursing fees and reasonable and necessary costs incurred in the United States by customers for re-filing applications for loans, grants or other credit instruments that are rejected solely as a result of a stolen identity incident; for notarizing affidavits or other similar documents, long-distance telephone calls and postage solely as a result of customers’ efforts to report a stolen identity incident and/or amend or rectify records as to customers’ true name or identity as a result of a stolen identity event; and for the cost of up to six credit reports from established credit bureaus (with no more than two reports from any one credit bureau) dated within 12 months after customers’ discovery of a stolen identity incident.

Cost and Cancellation

NIPC charges customers a flat monthly rate of $9.95.

To cancel their membership customers must contact NIPD customer service via telephone at (800) 414-8581.

Contact Information

Phone: (800) 414-8581

Customer Service Hours: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday; 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday (all times Eastern Standard)

Summary

The services NIPC offers for the monthly rate it charges suggest that it has value in mind, which certainly weighs in its favor. To its discredit, however, NICP conceals (or at least makes extremely difficult to find) vital information, including membership cancellation and refund policies. If customers can abide by such opacities, they should find that NICP offers solid identity theft protection at a competitive price.