Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

IDShield monitors the below areas and alerts you of potential risks to your identity. Learn more at https://www.idshield.com/individual-plan/.

• SSN monitoring
• Identity threat alerts
• Dark web monitoring
• Social media monitoring
• Public records monitoring
• Minor child monitoring for Family Plans
• Court records monitoring
• Address change monitoring
• Reputation management
• Sex offender search & monitoring

IDShield offers a variety of membership options. To find the membership that is right for you, please visit www.idshield.com to sign up on your own. If you would like further assistance or want to ask specific questions, please contact Member Services at (844)-963-3167 24/7, and one of the customer service representatives would be happy to assist you.

IDShield accepts the following payment methods:

• Monthly bank draft
• Annual bank draft
• Monthly credit card
• Annual credit card

Due to the subscription nature of the plans, IDShield does not accept prepaid credit cards.

“1B” and “3B” monitoring refers to the number of credit bureaus being monitored (the credit bureaus are TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian).

Offering 1-bureau monitoring through Experian allows the costs of IDShield plans to remain low while still monitoring important data. One-bureau monitoring is effective because it is rare that credit-related identity theft is limited to one event and that one event is reported to only one credit bureau. Most of the time, all three credit reports will be affected to some extent allowing 1-bureau monitoring to still be effective for alerting the member to an issue.

With the 3 bureau monitoring plans, IDShield monitors credit reports across all three major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Lenders, creditors, and many businesses check and submit data that ends up on your credit reports. But not all report to the same credit bureau. If changes or inquiries are made, participants will receive an alert.

It’s important to note that when identity theft is confirmed, the restoration process deals with ALL THREE national credit reporting agencies, so that all of the member’s reports are reviewed, and any fraudulent information discovered on the reports is disputed.

IDShield has Licensed Private Investigators to provide the best identity restoration possible and undo the damage done by identity thieves. IDShield Licensed Private Investigators, licensed in the state of OK, will work for as long as it takes to restore a member’s identity to its pre-theft status to ensure that they are not held responsible for the debts created by the identity theft. By performing restoration services, consumer reports are returned to their pre-theft status and other records are cleared of the activity created by the identity thief.

We scan certain social media accounts for old posts and photos you’ve posted or you’re tagged in that may be professionally damaging. The search defines this as photos that contain nudity, violence, drugs, alcohol or weapons, and text content that contains swearing, toxic comments, or highly negative sentiment.

IDShield believes everyone has a right to live life online without worry. While the internet has no shortage of threats, IDShield helps people rest easy. IDShield will always act with integrity and will only use your data to provide service to you. IDShield will always be clear and transparent about how your information is stored and handled. IDShield is part of PPLSI, established in 1972, which offers Legal and Identity protection plans and protects over 2 million North Americans.

Most pre-existing identity theft events are not covered under the full restoration benefit. However, our plans can still provide valuable protection and support.

Benefits such as unlimited consultation with an identity theft specialist to help you deal with pre-existing identity theft, help placing a fraud alert on your credit accounts, and ongoing monitoring to track any new issues provide critical support when you need it most.

If you’ve already experienced identity theft, join immediately and contact our Licensed Private Investigators to help prevent additional damage to your finances and reputation.

IDShield is a pre-paid monthly subscription service and is certainly not a scam. PPLSI’s mission for more than 50 years has been to protect and empower people with the tools and services needed to affordably live a just and secure life.

While PPLSI operates in many sales channels, PPLSI believes in helping our independent associates find empowerment as business owners by doing just that. While there can be negative stigmas around MLM sales channels, PPLSI can assure you that our products and services are real.

Today, PPLSI continues to harness the power of technology to empower over 4.5 million individuals and 140,000 businesses across North America to take their future into their own hands through its tools, services, and partnerships.

The dedicated IDShield Member Services Team is ready to help. Please get in touch with a customer service representative at (888)-494-8519 or via chat at www.idshield.com between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday or via the IDShield app, where assistance from the Member Services Team and IDShield Consultants is just a tap of the app away. A member of the team will be happy to assist you.

You can find your membership number in your welcome email after signing up for the services. You can also find it after logging into your account via accounts.legalshield.com or on the IDShield mobile app. If you need assistance locating it, you can contact IDShield Member Services at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday or via the IDShield app, where assistance from the Member Services Team is just a tap of the app away.

Yes. LegalShield and IDShield are two separate memberships. You will have a unique membership number for both.

Access after-hours consultation for covered identity theft emergencies. Call (866)-696-0927 to speak to a representative 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also log in to the IDShield mobile app and select Call Emergency Line to make your call.

The participant, their spouse/domestic partner and eligible dependent children under the age of 18. Note that monitoring services are not available for dependent children ages 18-26, but dependent children of the member or member’s spouse ages 18-26 are eligible for consultation and restoration services only.

After you have signed up for an IDShield membership, you will receive a welcome email. It will contain the instructions to log in to accounts.legalshield.com and download the IDShield mobile app.

You can update your billing info at accounts.legalshield.com. Log in, go to Account Settings, and select the plan you’d like to update. Then scroll down to Member Payment Information and select Edit. If you need further assistance, please contact Member Services at (888)-494-8519 from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday, and a member of the team would be happy to help.

IDShield is a pre-paid monthly subscription service, and members have the right to cancel at any time. Per company policy, all cancellation requests must be provided in writing. The easiest way to do so is by emailing [email protected] with your name, membership number, phone number, and your request to cancel the membership. If you would like to speak to someone about options to maintain your membership, please call as soon as possible at (844)-714-8494 between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team would be happy to help.

You may request reinstatement at any time by contacting your LegalShield Associate or Member Services at (888)-494-8519 between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team would be happy to help.

The dedicated Member Service Team is ready to help. Please get in touch at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield.com between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday or via the IDShield app, and a member of the team will be happy to assist you.

Federal law ensures that all Americans have the right to get a free credit report every 12 months from all three consumer reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). Get yours for free by visiting https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com, calling 1-877-322-8228 or downloading this request form and mailing it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

A fraud alert is a statement on your credit report indicating that you’re vulnerable to becoming a victim or have been a victim of identity theft. It asks a credit reviewer to take reasonable extra steps to verify the applicant’s identity, reducing the chance a thief will succeed in opening new accounts.

While fraud alerts are a great tool, they should not be considered complete protection. There are many other ways thieves can use your personal identification information to steal money and commit fraud beyond credit cards, such as filing false tax returns or initiating fraudulent transfers from your bank accounts, which fraud alerts do not protect against.

The dedicated IDShield Member Services Team is ready to help. Please get in touch at (888)-494-8519 or via chat at www.idshield.com between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday or via the IDShield app. A member of the team will be happy to assist you.

Please ensure that the OS on your device and your IDShield app is updated to the latest version. For further assistance, please contact Member Services at (888)-494-8519 or via chat at www.idshield.com between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

• Sign into your account
• Click on “Account”
• Click on “Update monitored information”

If you need further assistance, please contact Member Services at (888)-494-8519 or via chat at www.idshield.com between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

If you have already requested to reset your password but didn’t receive an email, please ensure that you have not previously unsubscribed from our emails, as this prevents password reset emails from being received. You can also add the email address to your approved sender list by whitelisting it.

If you need further assistance, please contact Member Services at (888)-494-8519 or via chat at www.idshield.com between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

There may be several reasons for this error. For example, the user may have multiple profiles that need to be linked by the Member Service Team. Please get in touch for further assistance at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield.com, or the IDShield app between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

There may be several reasons for this error. For example, the user may have multiple profiles that need to be linked by the Member Service Team. Please get in touch for further assistance at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield.com, or via the IDShield app between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

To resolve the issue, please go to the platform that you cannot log into and:

• Clear your cache/cookies/history
• Close all browser windows, etc.
•  Mobile users – manually enter your credentials. Don’t use auto fillers if you are having issues logging in

If you need further assistance, please contact Member Services at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield.com, or via the IDShield app between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

The invited users may have multiple profiles that need to be linked by the Member Service Team. Please get in touch for further assistance at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield.com, or via the IDShield app between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help. What if it’s an individual plan that doesn’t allow dependents?

You can start by trying your Membership Number. If that doesn’t work, the invited users may have multiple profiles that need to be linked by the Member Service Team. Please get in touch for further assistance at (888)-494-8519, via chat at www.idshield.com, or via the IDShield app between 7-7 CST Monday-Friday, and a member of the team will be happy to help.

Identity theft is the third-party use of your personal information to obtain goods and services without your knowledge or consent. Learn more at https://www.idshield.com/what-is-id-theft/.

There are numerous ways that thieves can obtain personally identifiable information (PII). Examples include:

• Stealing physical items such as mail, wallet/purse, smartphone, trash, etc.
• Stealing digital data as when a business computer system is breached, your computer is tainted with malware or a skimmer is placed on a payment card reader.
• Gathering personal information from social networks and data aggregator websites.
• Phishing schemes – tricks to get you to reveal information.

Sometimes a consumer may think identity theft has occurred when it may not actually have. If there is an account on your credit report that you did not authorize, it’s possible that an identity thief used your information to create an account, or it could simply be the result of a credit reporting error.

You can prove you’re a victim of identity theft if you can confirm that your Social Security number or other key piece of your Personally Identifiable Information was used to open a credit card account, obtain a loan, submit health care information or similar unauthorized activity.

IDShield members have unlimited consultation with Licensed Private Investigators if they have any questions or concerns regarding the status of their identity.

Credit report monitoring in itself does not prevent identity theft. However, it’s a tool that can alert you to activity that may indicate identity theft is being attempted or has occurred. If you learn someone used your data to apply for credit, you’ll take steps to prevent future misuse of your data.

Identity theft is much more than credit card fraud. It’s the fraudulent use of personally identifiable information (PII) by a thief for the purpose of obtaining goods, services, and/or employment, committing a crime, gaining a benefit, or hiding a real identity. It can include a consumer’s name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, driver’s license number, telephone number, passport information, birth certificate information, student transcript data and medical record information.

Remember, identity theft is not limited to credit fraud. In fact, credit-related identity theft accounts for only a small amount of the identity theft incidents reported to the FTC each year.

Someone can misuse your driver’s license number, make counterfeit checks using your personal information, use your identity to rent an apartment or apply for a payday loan, or give your name and other identifiers to the police if they’re arrested. These activities and others have nothing to do with your credit history.

Often confused with the “deep web,” which is simply those parts of the internet not indexed by any search engine, the “dark web” includes those sites that take measures to hide their IP address to remain anonymous. The most notorious sites on the dark web are those with illegal activities such as selling stolen information (think credit/debit card data and personal identifiers that can be used to commit identity theft), drug sales, weapon sales and pornography. If you ever must visit the dark web, you should consider dark web monitoring first.

Credit and debit card fraud, sometimes referred to as “existing account fraud,” occurs when a thief steals information on an existing account and then uses it to gain access to financial information, such as for making unauthorized purchases.

In contrast, “new account fraud” happens when the thief uses the victim’s personally identifiable information to establish an entirely new account of which the victim has no knowledge.

Your credit score is a numerical representation of the history of credit use found in your credit report. Your credit report lists the details of your credit history, including creditor names, addresses, loan amounts, credit limits, payments made on time or past due, and amount of monthly payments.

Although most credit reports contain the same information, there is a chance that one credit report might have data that a different credit-reporting agency doesn’t have. If you get credit scores that are each based on a different credit report, you could see other credit scores.

No. Many reports contain errors. If you find an account on your credit report you don’t recognize, call that creditor and ask them to tell you whether there is an account that was opened using your personal identifying information, particularly your Social Security number.

It’s unlikely the Social Security Administration will issue a new number for limited identity theft. In fact, getting a new Social Security number would probably create a new set of problems for you. Remember that your Social Security number is connected to your employment, tax, education, and medical records. Seeking a new Social Security number is only considered in extreme situations.

If someone has used your Social Security number, the best first step is to sign up for IDShield and let the systems and licensed investigators help protect your identity from further abuse and develop a plan to secure your accounts.