Be sure to visit www.annualcreditreport.com opens in a new tab to get a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each credit reporting company. And of course, closely monitor all your accounts for fraud. Your Discover card has a $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee, so you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases on your Discover card account. We monitor every purchase, every day and alert you of any suspicious transactions by email, text or phone call. If you become the victim of identity theft, consult helpful resources like www.identitytheft.gov opens in a new tab.

See how the free alerts from Discover could help you protect your identity if you're the victim of a data breach, or if you're simply concerned about one.

• Activate your free alerts from Discover at www.discover.com/freealerts if you haven't already. We'll alert you if we find your Social Security number on any of thousands of risky websites. And we'll alert you when new car loans, mortgages, credit cards or other accounts show up on your Experian^® credit report.
• The free alerts from Discover are backed by 100% U.S.-based fraud resolution experts who can even help you place a fraud alert on your credit files with all three major credit bureaus.

Be sure to activate your free alerts from Discover at www.discover.com/freealerts if you haven't already.

You'll get a free alert when we find your Social Security number on any of thousands of risky websites. Not all stolen information from a data breach ends up on these risky websites. If they do, you'll receive an alert.

You'll also get a free alert when there are new car loans, mortgages, credit cards or other accounts on your Experian^® credit report. Keep in mind that it takes time, sometimes several weeks, for a lender to report a new account to Experian. When they do, you'll receive an alert.

Stolen personal information may be sold on risky websites located on a hidden part of the Internet (sometimes referred to as the "dark web"). The "dark web" is a term that refers specifically to a collection of websites that exist on an encrypted network and cannot be found by using traditional search engines or visited by using traditional browsers. This hidden part of the web provides anonymity for the network of websites hosted there, and for the people browsing them. These risky websites are typically used to provide contraband for sale and access to taboo information. Illegal weapons, drugs, and stolen payment card information are a few examples of the material that can be found for sale.

We monitor thousands of risky websites on the dark web – a hidden area of the Internet where stolen social security numbers can be traded or sold for the purposes of identity theft and fraud. This process is also called internet scanning or internet surveillance. If we find your Social Security number, we'll send you an alert and help you take action.

We also monitor your Experian^® credit report and notify you whenever any new credit account is reported to your Experian^® credit file, even if it's not a Discover account. In most cases, you will probably recognize it as an account you opened. However, if you don't recognize the account, we'll let you know what steps you need to take to close the account, inform the credit bureaus and reduce your risk of future fraudulent activity.

There is no requirement for creditors to report new accounts to Experian within a given time period, it could take several weeks before the opened account appears on your Experian credit report. We monitor your report at Experian every day to alert you once the account appears on your credit report at Experian. Additionally, not all companies report to all 3 major credit bureaus.

No, the Social Security Number and new account opened alerts will never negatively impact your credit report or your credit score.

No, this monitoring service cannot prevent identity theft. However, it's a tool that can alert you to activity that may indicate identity theft is being attempted or has taken place.