Can money lost due to identity theft be recovered?
Most of the identity theft protection services reviewed on NextAdvisor.com guarantee a certain amount of money, usually up to $1,000,000, to cover the costs associated with restoring your identity. These guarantees do not, however, cover money that has been lost. Since you are not legally responsible for paying any fraudulent debt accumulated by an identity thief, the only money that is likely to be lost would be funds withdrawn from your bank accounts. It is up to your bank or financial institution to restore money that has been stolen from your accounts. Many banks voluntarily offer zero-liability policies, which means that they are effectively promising to replace any stolen funds. Visa and MasterCard also offer zero-liability policies, which extend to debit cards as well as credit cards. The money in your bank account is also federally protected, to an extent. If your debit card is lost or stolen, your liability is limited to $50.00 in losses, as long as you report the loss to your