The biggest risk is identity theft where the culprit uses your SSN to gain credit in your name to buy stuff. You can protect yourself by placing a "freeze" on

The biggest risk is identity theft where the culprit uses your SSN to gain credit in your name to buy stuff. You can protect yourself by placing a "freeze" on your credit report. This is essentially what LifeLock does (simplified). But you can do it for free by calling the rating agencies yourself: http://www.ehow.com/how_4447446_block-companies-checking-credit-report.html http://www.ehow.com/how_4447446_block-companies-checking-cre...