Suze Orman and TrustedID launch ID theft kit

Most people either love or hate her. Suze Orman, a television host, author, columnist and speaker is an expert in everything personal finance. Now she has stepped into new territory: identity theft. Launching today, her Identity Theft Kit  is a joint effort with TrustedID, an identity theft protection business I've used as a source for a story about online safety. The goal of the kit is to stop identity theft before it happens.

Some of the kit's features include fraud flag placement on credit reports, anti-spyware protection for your computer, lost wallet protection, annual credit reports, medical record protection, "enhanced junk mail reduction" and an on-call identity theft protection team, backed by a million-dollar service warranty. The protection of the kit covers the purchaser, a second adult, children and elderly parents.

The kit comes on a CD-Rom. It is currently exclusively available from QVC (online or by phone), though it will soon be available on Suze Orman and TrustedID's Web sites, as well.

While Suze's kit is focused on proactive protection, I have also blogged about Mari Frank's identity theft survival kit, which provides a reactive solution (it contains attorney forms, letters to issuers and a book for victims, among other things).

In 2007, a Gartner study revealed that identity theft affects more than 15 million people a year.  Don't be a statistic -- whether it's with an identity theft kit or not, learn how to protect yourself.