This is a posture audit, not a checklist: mark what you already have in place — a freeze at each credit bureau, an IRS Identity Protection PIN, two-factor authentication on your email and bank, regular report reviews — and it turns your answers into a gap list. Each gap shows what the control is, the official page that sets it up, and the federal law that makes it free. Nothing you mark is collected or sent anywhere (your marks save only in your own browser), and every item is a free, official channel — there is nothing here to buy.
Since a 2018 federal amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. §1681c-1), placing and lifting a security freeze is free at all three nationwide credit bureaus, everywhere in the country — and a bureau must place one within a business day of an online or phone request. A freeze restricts who can pull your credit file, which is the check most new credit accounts require, and it has no effect on your credit score or on the accounts you already have. The catch people miss: each bureau freezes separately, so a freeze at one of Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion leaves the other two files open. This audit tracks all three individually and links each bureau's official freeze page directly — no third-party middleman.
A freeze guards your existing credit file, but synthetic identity fraud works around the file entirely: fragments of real information — often a real Social Security number, frequently a child's — are combined with a fabricated name and birth date, and the resulting identity can pass initial checks because there is no existing file to freeze. That's why the audit also covers the IRS Identity Protection PIN (which keeps a federal tax return from being e-filed under your Social Security number without it), two-factor authentication on the accounts that control everything else, and — for parents — the protected-consumer freeze, which the FCRA lets a parent or guardian place on a child's credit file free of charge (15 U.S.C. §1681c-1(j)).
The audit covers the free, high-leverage controls that have an official channel: freezes at the three bureaus, the IRS IP PIN, two-factor authentication on your primary email and main bank login, weekly report reviews through AnnualCreditReport.com (free at least annually by federal law, 15 U.S.C. §1681j), and a child's credit freeze for households with kids. It is deliberately not exhaustive, it doesn't scan breaches or monitor anything, and it collects nothing — no email address, no account; your answers save only on your own device. Commercial monitoring services ask for your personal information before showing results; this audit runs entirely in your browser and everything it points to is free and official.
Disclaimer: NotALawyer.com provides general legal information, not legal advice, and is not a law firm. Using a tool does not create an attorney–client relationship. Laws change and vary by situation — verify anything important with the official source or a licensed attorney in your state.