 TITLE: How to Protect Your Identity and Credit CONTENT: Differences Between Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\nCredit monitoring alerts you whenever there is activity that involves or affects your credit report, including:\n*   **Inquiries**: Requests from lenders to review your credit report or obtain a credit score in connection to loan applications.\n*   **New accounts**: Any time a new loan or credit card account is opened using your name and Social Security number, credit monitoring notifies you via text or email. New accounts can also include collections accounts.\nIdentity theft protection, including services offered by Experian, typically encompasses alerts covered under credit monitoring, and extends its scope to include combing online exchanges, including those on the dark web, for signs your passwords or other personal data appear on lists of information stolen by data pirates, culled from data breaches or otherwise hijacked by cybercriminals. END