Loading page
Trace is a private demonstration page, not a security provider. It is not affiliated with the FTC, the credit bureaus or any company named on it. Everything described as free below is free directly from the source.
Identity theft protection
Identity theft is not a single account being broken into — it is a name, a number and a date of birth being used to open things you never see. Here is what is actually exposed, what watching it can and cannot do, and the three free steps worth taking before you pay anyone for anything.
This page names no provider and sells nothing. The free steps below are free directly from the FTC and the credit bureaus.
An illustration of the surfaces a monitoring service typically covers — not a live scan of anyone, and nothing on this page checks your details.
Do these first
None of this needs a subscription and none of it is a trick. A monitoring service tells you after something happened; a freeze stops the most damaging kind from happening at all.
A security freeze stops a lender pulling your credit file, which stops new accounts being opened in your name. It is free by federal law at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, it does not affect your credit score, and you lift it temporarily when you actually want credit. This is the single most effective step on this page.
Free · federal right
You can get your reports from all three bureaus free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com — the only site authorised for it. Accounts you do not recognise are the earliest hard evidence of theft, and most people have never looked.
Free · weekly
A six-digit PIN that must appear on your federal tax return. Without it nobody can file a fraudulent return in your name and take the refund — which is one of the most common and slowest-to-unwind kinds of identity theft.
Free · from the IRS
The exposure
Understanding which surface is exposed tells you which protection matters. A leaked password and a leaked Social Security number are not the same problem and do not have the same fix.
Most damaging
Permanent, reusable, and the key to opening credit in your name. It cannot be changed except in narrow circumstances, which is why the freeze matters more than the alert.
Most common
Reused across sites, so one breach unlocks many accounts. A password manager and unique passwords retire this whole category of risk.
Fastest moving
Used within hours, usually for small test charges first. Card networks limit your liability, but debit cards have far tighter reporting deadlines than credit cards.
Quietest
Changed to intercept mail and SMS codes. A redirected phone number defeats two-factor codes sent by text, which is why app-based codes are safer.
Slowest to surface
A fraudulent return or benefit claim filed in your name, often discovered months later when your own filing is rejected.
Hardest to reverse
Treatment or an arrest recorded against your identity. Rare, but the most laborious to correct because the records live outside the credit system.
Before you buy anything
Every honest answer here is in the fine print of the products themselves. Reading it before you subscribe is the difference between a useful tool and a monthly payment for reassurance.
Tell you sooner
Monitoring shortens the gap between something happening and you knowing about it, and that gap is where most of the damage compounds. This is the real product.
Handle the recovery paperwork
Restoration services do the calls, disputes and affidavits on your behalf. For a serious case this is genuinely worth paying for — it is dozens of hours of work.
Prevent theft
No service stops your data being taken from a company you gave it to. The word “protection” describes watching and recovery, not prevention.
Delete leaked data
Once a record is on a breach market it is copied endlessly. Dark-web monitoring can tell you it is there; nobody can take it back.
Replace the free freeze
Most plans do not freeze your credit for you — you still do that yourself at each bureau, and it remains free whether or not you subscribe.
“Up to $1M insurance”
That figure almost always covers out-of-pocket recovery costs — lost wages, legal fees, postage — not money stolen from your accounts, which is usually recovered through your bank instead. Read what the policy actually reimburses.
If it has already happened
Doing these out of order costs weeks. The report comes early because almost everything after it asks whether you have one.
Hour one
Freeze at all three bureaus first so nothing further can be opened while you deal with the rest. Then contact the fraud line of every institution involved and have the affected cards or accounts closed rather than merely flagged.
Hour two
The FTC's official site generates an Identity Theft Report and a personalised recovery plan. That report is the document banks, bureaus and debt collectors ask for, and creating it is free.
Day one
Your email account is the reset route to everything else, so it goes first. Turn on two-factor authentication using an app rather than SMS wherever it is offered.
Week one
Send disputes to the bureaus and to the company that reported the account, with a copy of your Identity Theft Report. Written disputes create the paper trail; phone calls do not.
Ongoing
Lift it for the days you are actually applying for something and put it back. The single most common way people get hit twice is leaving it thawed after a mortgage or car loan.
Straight answers
Go straight to the source
One email, then we leave you alone
The checklist is the three free steps with the exact links and the order to do them in. It takes about twenty minutes and it costs nothing.