6 Best Identity Theft Protection Services of March 2025

Identity theft is as pervasive as ever: A quick look at the Fraud and ID Theft Maps of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shows 841,810 reports of ID theft by the end of September last year, reaching 2021 numbers. And just recently, Americans were alerted to one of the largest data breaches to date, with more than 2,900,000,000 records leaked.

Identity theft protection services can’t prevent ID theft from happening — that’s a promise no one person or product can make. But they can soften the impact and help you get back on track, taking back over your identity before the greatest damage is done.

What to know about identity theft protection

• Aura, IDShield and LifeLock offer the most comprehensive protection across all the companies we reviewed.
• Credit services, such as three-bureau monitoring and credit score simulators or trackers, often show up in more expensive identity theft protection plans only.
• According to Javelin’s 2024 Identity Fraud Study, online identity fraud cases represent more than half of all cases. This makes cybersecurity tools more important than ever.
• An identity theft protection service can’t prevent criminals from stealing your information, but it can alert you to their activities and warn you if your data has been exposed online.

How we chose our top picks

Our team of writers and editors has spent years researching identity theft protection services. To accurately and fairly assess the companies we considered featuring on our list, we reached out to experts and gathered information from authoritative sources. We settled on 26 data points, including plan prices, monitoring types, identity restoration packages and cybersecurity tools.

Read our full methodology to learn more.

Our top picks for the best identity theft protection services

Aura - Best Identity Theft Protection Overall
LifeLock - Best Identity Theft Protection for Children
EverSafe - Best Identity Theft Protection for Seniors
IdentityForce - Best Identity Theft Protection for Families
Bitdefender - Best Identity Theft Protection for Content Creators
IDShield - Best Identity Theft Restoration

Learn more by reading our full Aura review.

Learn more by reading our full LifeLock review.

Learn more by reading our full IdentityForce review.

Learn more by reading our full IDShield review.

Other identity theft protection services we considered

The following identity theft protection services are decent choices but either offer niche services, didn’t stand out in any particular area or fell just short of landing in one of our top categories.

Identity Guard

Why it didn’t make the cut: Identity Guard lists a large number of monitoring types on its plans and extensive credit protection services. Unfortunately, many of these features are locked behind the company’s more expensive plans. Identity Guard also lags behind when it comes to online security tools: it doesn’t offer a VPN, malware protection or an antivirus, for example.

Learn more by reading our full Identity Guard review.

ReliaShield

Why it didn’t make the cut: ReliaShield plans cost less on average for what they bring, and the company is a competent identity theft protection service. However, it lacks the standout features of the companies in our top list. Moreover, ReliaShield doesn’t offer device protection tools, which have become a staple offering in the industry.

Learn more by reading our full ReliaShield review.

FreeKick

Why it didn’t make the cut: FreeKick isn’t a traditional identity theft protection service. Rather, it’s a deposit account for your family that can protect their identity while helping your children build credit when they turn 13. If you are able to make the upfront investment — at least $1,000 — and maintain that balance, it’s a worthwhile alternative to traditional family identity theft protection plans.

What is identity theft (and how does it happen)?

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifiable information (PII) for personal gain without permission. What often follows is known as identity fraud, which is when a thief uses your stolen information to commit a crime, such as opening accounts, applying for credit, filing taxes or seeking medical services in your name.

Identity theft comes in many forms, and not all of them consist of a malicious hacker on the other side of the screen waiting for you to write your password. Your information can be stolen digitally or physically, and as part of a broad or targeted attack.

• Data breaches: Cybercriminals that gain unauthorized access to a business’s database may steal names, dates of birth, home and email addresses, passwords, credit cards, driver’s licenses and even Social Security numbers.

• Phishing: Identity thieves can trick you into sharing private information or downloading attachments that infect your device by using emails or text messages that look like they’re from legitimate companies, such as banks, online stores and social media sites.

• Formjacking: By inserting malicious code into legitimate website forms, hackers can copy your billing information or login credentials without arousing suspicion.

• AI fraud: AI technology is able to amplify online scams, for example, by automating credential stuffing attacks and generating highly personalized (and convincing) phishing emails. It could also facilitate fraud through the use of deepfake videos and AI voice cloning.
  

Other kinds of identity theft

Some methods for stealing a person’s identity consist of exploiting specific types of documents, such as medical, investment and tax documents. A thief could also compile several pieces of information to create a fake version of you.

• Child identity theft: Scammers can steal a child’s personal information and use it to wrongfully obtain services and benefits, or to commit fraud. This often goes unnoticed until years later when the affected individual tries to obtain a job, car insurance or a new credit card.

• Medical identity theft: Your information could be used to obtain a health insurance policy or to submit false claims to Medicare and other insurers. This may also involve a scammer using your health insurance to visit a doctor or get a prescription.

• Tax identity theft: A scammer that gets access to your Social Security number can use it to file a fraudulent tax return and collect the refund before you do. Most people become aware of this type of theft when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) flags their tax return as a duplicate.

• Synthetic identity theft: Cybercriminals might create new identities by combining real personal information with fake data. For example, they may use a real Social Security number and a false name to apply for a loan.

How does identity theft protection work?

Identity theft protection companies help you monitor your private information across the internet to spot scams early on. They send alerts when your information might be compromised and can help restore your identity in case of theft, reimbursing you for losses in some cases.

The most common features of identity protection services are:

• Identity monitoring: Identity theft protection services monitor websites, databases and public records and alert you if your sensitive information is being shared or used by fraudsters. They may track your SSN, driver’s license, passport, home address, phone number and bank accounts (e.g. checking and investment accounts).

• Credit report monitoring: Credit monitoring services review your credit report from one or all three major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — for signs of possible fraud and identity theft. If any suspicious activity turns up in your credit file, you are notified via email, text or phone so you can verify this information.

(If you’ve already been the victim of identity theft, and there is inaccurate information in your credit history, make sure to check out our guide to the best credit repair companies).

• Identity recovery services: Restoration services provide professional assistance to help you recover your identity and secure your accounts. This includes contacting government agencies, requesting a credit freeze and helping you write letters to creditors and debt collectors.

Although you can dispute your credit report on your own, hiring a company to do so can save you time and effort.

• Identity theft reimbursement: Also called identity theft insurance, this covers stolen funds and out-of-pocket expenses related to recovering your identity such as legal fees or lost wages. Coverage ranges from $20,000 to $1 million, but can go as high as $5 million in some cases.

• VPN services: A virtual private network (VPN) creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and its online destination. This limits how much of your data ends up online and how vulnerable you are to malicious third parties, especially on public wi-fi networks.

• Antivirus software: Antivirus search your device’s system files, documents, programs and applications to detect and remove malicious software (e.g. viruses, trojans, adware) that may be tracking you or stealing your information.

Latest identity theft news

Social engineering scams, which exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities, have become prevalent methods for fraudsters to gain unauthorized access to individuals' bank accounts. According to recent reports, such scams — phishing, vishing and smishing — now account for approximately 23% of all digital banking fraud incidents.

Data breaches continue to grow in number and size, as last year’s National Public Data breach showed, which left nearly 3 billion records exposed. Most recently, data breaches of DISA Global Solutions and edtech giant PowerSchool left the records of tens of millions Americans exposed.

Americans now permanently have the right to ask for a free credit report from each of the major credit reporting agencies every week. Although it might be tempting to do so, experts are recommending that consumers pull their report on a monthly basis to avoid unnecessary stress.

How we chose the best identity theft protection services

When evaluating identity theft protection services, we focused on three main factors in addition to cost: protection, restoration and reputation. The best services offer comprehensive identity and credit monitoring, have a robust identity theft restoration package and are in good standing with their customers and the industry at large.

Protection services

Identity theft protection services are based mainly on a system of monitoring and alerts that they use to notify customers if their information is compromised. They can then help them avoid fraud, or at least limit its impact.

We highlighted services that track a wide range of items as well as those with unique types of monitoring. Common alerts include those for dark web, social media, bank account, change of address and data breach monitoring. Other items, such as home and auto titles, investment accounts and high-risk transactions, are usually monitored on more expensive plans only.

Some services can also proactively limit how much information you leave online when surfing the Web, or they might protect your devices from spam and malicious software. We favored services that included cybersecurity tools like a VPN, password manager, malware blocker and antivirus on most or all of their plans.

Restoration services

In some cases, an identity theft protection service will notify you of leaked data after it has already been used or sold by fraudsters. A dependable service will offer some level of fraud insurance to combat this, which can reimburse you for legal fees incurred during the identity recovery process.

We favored services that advertise generous identity restoration packages of at least $1 million per individual. We also considered whether they had experts available around the clock to guide you through the recovery process, featured a credit lock on their platform and contacted financial institutions or government agencies on your behalf to report foul play.

Reputation

A company’s reputation can suggest what to expect when it comes to picking an identity theft protection service. As with any industry, legal action against a company should be a red flag in all but the most fringe cases. Customer feedback online slants negative, so we only flagged services that had considerably negative reviews on reputable third-party websites.

To determine reputation, we looked at complaints on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Better Business Bureau and identified any trends, including if they promptly responded to customers. We also considered feedback from reviews in Trustpilot and platforms with methods of verifying customer feedback, favoring services with higher ratings overall.

Summary of our top identity theft protection picks for your money

Aura - Best Identity Theft Protection Overall
LifeLock - Best Identity Theft Protection for Children
EverSafe - Best Identity Theft Protection for Seniors
IdentityForce - Best Identity Theft Protection for Families
Bitdefender - Best Identity Theft Protection for Content Creators
IDShield - Best Identity Theft Restoration