In October 2004 my car was broken into and a bag was stolen that had my credit cards, my parents' credit cards and my check book. Thank goodness my husband's business checkbook and credit card were not in the bag. If it had not been for that, we wouldn't have been able to buy anything with a check or credit card for a long time. It took four or five months to get my name off most of the stores' hot check lists. It is now July 2009 and I am finally able to write checks at all of the stores again. Almost 5 years later! Some of the stores use a check verification company and I can not tell you how many times I called that company, faxed the police report and everything else that they requested. They would assure me that everything was taken care of and then I would go to the store and be denied. How embarassing?
I am now a member of
LifeLock 
and I assure you that this will never happen to me again. LifeLock provides a proactive identity theft service, specializing in the prevention of identity theft rather than the reporting of it. LifeLock was founded in 2005 and is already considered the industry leader.
I will never let this happen to me again. Don't let it happen to you. It is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
