JUST WHAT IS YOUR RISK OF ID THEFT?

Just when you’d figured out how to get your credit score, another important number crops up: your ID score, which can alert you to your risk for identity theft.

In use for a decade by financial institutions and other creditors, the ID score calculates the risk that customers are who they say they are. Now for the first time, San Diego-based ID Analytics, one of the companies that develop and sell the score to businesses, is making it available to consumers for free on the website www.myidscore.com.

You must fill out contact information (no Social Security number is required) and answer some simple questions about your financial history. The result is a score between 1 and 999. The higher the score, the more you are at risk for identity theft. If your score is high, a link is provided to the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center, which can help you learn how to protect yourself.