It cannot be stressed enough that protecting oneself from identity thieves can only be done proactively.  A number of financial institutions offer identity theft protection plans by reimbursing for out-of-pocket expenses up to a certain dollar amount and helping with the process of contacting creditors, writing affidavits and filing reports.  Some of these plans are offered for free as part of your checking or savings account, while others may charge a monthly fee.Few individual companies such as LifeLock also offer identity protection service for a monthly fee. LifeLock presents more features: fraud alerts, credit monitoring, stop of pre-approved offers, identity theft insurance coverage, and will even scan the internet for misuse of your credit card and social security numbers.  Furthermore, LifeLock backs up their services with identity insurance guarantees of up to one million dollars.  Check out LifeLock because it is one of the leading names in proactive protection for identity theft.  Indeed, identity theft is hard to prevent from occurring, but being proactive about it by securing protections before the crime happens may do the trick.