Credit reporters guard against military identity theft

As thousand of men and women risk their lives to protect to United States everyday, consumer credit services are looking after soldiers financial interests at home. Many criminals steal the identities of members of the armed forces when they are at war, because usually by the time the soldier realizes someone opened lines of credit in their name and made fraudulent purchases, it is too late. The Air Force Times recently reported that in September 2011, tapes containing information about 4.9 million patients were stolen from the Tricare health program that cares for military servicemen and their families. The source explained that credit reporting companies will work with families stationed overseas on a base and base fees and policies off of the state the family normally lives in in the U.S. The large credit reporting agencies offer a tool that can be used by men and women serving in the military to minimize the risk of fraud when deployed. TransUnion specified that an Active Duty Military Alert can be placed on a credit file for one year, and if placed with one of the big credit reporting companies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, it will alert the other two and an alert will be placed immediately.