Has anyone had experience with LifeLock -- the company that claims to protect your identity?

[Radio_Lady]

Have you had any experience with this group? If so, or if you have something positive to contribute to this conversation, we would appreciate it.

I have just learned from a letter received on Saturday -- that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts accidentally gave my name and social security number to some unsecured source in September 2007. While they swear up and down that the data has been retrieved, and the people who had it didn't use it for any bad purpose -- still it's a nagging doubt.

We're trying to decide whether it's worth $240 a year ($10.00 a month per person) to guarantee that no identity theft will occur.

I've seen the LifeLock advertisements on television with the CEO Todd David who boasts no one will tamper with his SS number. He gives it to you in his ads and on his website.

Thanks in advance.

RL and AA

You might also want to read about their service here:

http://www.lifelock.com

[bryant69]

1. They Advertise on the Rush Limbaugh show - not sure if that means much.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[physioex]

4. Your title pretty much says it all....

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-05-31/news/what-happened-in-vegas/

[physioex]

2. Noooo its bogus...

The "service" they provide, you can pretty much do by yourself by calling the credit agency and putting a watch on your credit.

[emald]

8. yes, if you remember to do it every 90 days,

but if you wish to have help when or if it does happen Lifelock will be there. Their real service is in providing back up if such theft of identity does occur. If you can insure yourself for a million dollars, do it or take the chance that no one will use your credit rating for nefarious purposes. "Won't happen to me" is an excuse heard quite often in this business. I can't insure myself and the added help of their company makes sense when trying to undo the trouble a thief can make.
And why does something become bogus just because you can do it yourself? Are you suggesting that this company is fleecing the public? Give us some examples genius, surely the claim of bogosity has some links or something other than just your opinion? All the checking out I performed on this company shows a legitimate operation that takes some of the bitter out of having your identity stolen. Some help win the shit hits the fan. It's already happened to me, a nobody with no money in remote Alaska.
Bogus? Bull shit.

[Nia Zuri]

9. Wrong, put a fraud alert on your bureau files, anyonetries to apply for credit

you will be called from home to authorize. You need to periodically renew this, but it's not every 90 days, I believe you can even put a fruad alert on your file for up to 5 years. Thsi is what I have done. Life lock is a total rip off.

[physioex]

11. Right....

And in the absolute worst case you can negotiate with creditors if fraud has occured and get the debt erased. Other than the "million dollar" insurace their service is TOTALLY BOGUS.

I am sorry to hear someone had their identity stolen, but that is no reason to sign up for this crappy service.

[flamingyouth]

3. I've been using Equifax and have a good experience so far.

They don't make guarantees but they cover you up to $20,000.

[emald]

5. I signed up with lifelock because of probable usage of my ssn by someone unknown

It hasn't been a problem yet but now I feel well protected. Lifelock does nothing that you alone can't do they just do it on time and repeatedly and with the added insurance that if something does happen with your identity you have coverage and help. Read the BBB stuff about this, it will make your hair stand on end. This is a real problem, especially with ssn's being pulled out of the air for fraud use.
I surely feel the 24 dollars a month for my wife and I is well spent.

[flamingyouth]

7. It's frightening, isn't it?

It happened to me recently too.

[Lisa]

6. people shouldn't have to go to another company because their bank isn't doing its job

It seems like a protection racket to me -- even if they do what they claim they will (guarantee that you will be protected against identity theft), I just get the feeling that this is all part of some giant scheme to squeeze as much money out of people as possible. Like having to get insurance to insure your insurance policies, or those "extended warranty" things they try to get you to buy at appliance/electronics places. Shouldn't a credit card company or bank be offering protection to clients a part of the regular service package? Surely it's in their interest to do so? (Unless they have stock in LifeLock, I guess.)

Re: SSNs, we have this issue in Canada too. It was supposed to be exclusively used for dealings with the government (passport, tax, etc.), and the only other people who ought to know about it were your employers. It was NOT intended to be used as a general ID. There was once a writing contest organized in my town, and the people running it thought it would be a dandy idea to get entrants to use their Social Insurance Numbers (SINs) instead of their names. I challenged them, on the basis that SINs were supposed to be confidential, and that also they were discriminating against younger people who did not have them (back then teens only applied for them once they had their first paying jobs).

[emald]

10. Lifelock is not about the Bank, the Credit Union or any other agency

It is about your identity being stolen to obtain credit. Happens often if you care to research. Try the BBB for info, thats where I started. A ssn, a mothers maiden name, an address, all these are relatively easy to obtain and can be used to open credit accounts unknown to the real person, till it's too late.
Hopefully no problem will come to you, as it did to me. My particulars are of no import and I don't want to spread information usefull to thieves but suffice it to say that I was on my own for this and it really hurt bad.
Your bank covers your credit cards and accounts, yes. But not identity theft. Two different things as I found out. My credit was hit badly, not my cards, though those got hit also a while later. With the id theft all the banks and institutions would say is geez thats too bad. Now, with Lifelock, should it happen again, I will at least recover any loses and have professional help in solving the problem, as well as a warning should anyone try to use my credit. Easily worth twelve bucks a month to me; hell I piss that much beer in a weekend occasionally.
Is twelve dollars a month such a sum that "squeeze" is an appropriate descriptive? I suppose that if 12 is a large enough sum to "squeeze" your accounts that your credit may not be worth protecting anyway. Good for you.

[Lisa]

16. if it's a crime (and it certainly is), we shouldn't have to pay extra for protection

I sympathize with all the effort and expense you've had to go to -- a good friend of mine almost ended up in court because his identity was stolen by a con artist, and by the time the cops had straightened things out, he was facing several fraud charges.

Thanks for explaining how Lifelock works. But I can't help thinking about parallel situations. If someone comes up to me and tries to do me physical harm, there are laws that will allow prosecution (and people whose job it is to come and protect me, even though I haven't had to hire them myself). I am wondering why the companies that give out "credit" are not being held liable if they don't bother checking out applicants beforehand. Wasn't that the way it used to be done? I seem to recall that it wasn't an easy thing to get credit, in previous decades.

Re: 12 dollars being a "squeeze" -- it is for some people. For me, that's about what I pay for service charges on my bank account. If it becomes so everybody has to have Lifelock, that's 12 dollars times 300 million people in America (though I haven't subtracted the number who are minors ... some of who might already have credit cards anyway). Someone's making a lot of money.

I'm not criticizing you personally, emald. I'm glad that you managed to recover from the crime that was done to you (my friend is still dealing with the fallout).

By the way, I didn't get a credit card until I was in my 30s, so it's probably as you say -- me and my credit aren't worth protecting or consideration, in any case.



p.s. I haven't got anything against Lifelock or its founder personally. My comments are in general terms, about the way the system is set up, and the number of holes that there are in it, which aren't being addressed by governments or the original financial corporations. There are so many that it starts to look like a protection racket setup. If the system really worked, there wouldn't be a pressing need for Lifelock (and you wouldn't have been dragged through all the pain and hassles you've described).

[Chovexani]

20. I urge you to read the New Times expose on Lifelock

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-05-31/news/what-happened-in-vegas/full

There are plenty of legitimate services you can go to for identity theft protection, just about every bank that issues credit cards has one (I know, because I used to sell Chase's when I worked customer service for their card service division). Lifelock is extremely crooked and I would NOT trust them with my personal info.

[emald]

12. okay, enough bogus information

here are some websites to do research on your own.
Is it worth the twelve dollars a month? For me it sure is, obviously for some it remains a problem. Read the information and decide for yourself.

<http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/about-identity-theft.html>

<http://www.idtheftcenter.org/>


It is possible to do an extended fraud alert, as a poster noted above, but only if you've filed a police report of Identity Theft. 90 days is the normal and doesn't require a police report. So the above poster must have filed this report which means they were victims of ID theft and they seem to think it not worth the money so who knows? Personally I was on the hook for many tens of thousands and the twelve bucks a month is well spent IMHO.

BTW, Lifelock will cancel any subscription of their service upon notice and return any unused funds.

[azmouse]

13. You can now place a freeze on your credit records.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/1004biz-creditfreezes04-ON.html


Experian freezing credit reports
The Associated Press
Oct. 4, 2007 09:07 AM

NEW YORK - Amid growing concern about identity theft, Experian has joined the nation's two other major credit bureaus in allowing consumers to freeze access to their credit files.

Experian, which is based in Costa Mesa, Calif., announced Thursday that it will offer the option nationwide beginning Nov. 1.

Starting on that date, "Experian will allow any consumer across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories to place a freeze on their credit report," the company said in a statement.

A credit file freeze prevents new creditors from accessing the credit file without the consumer's consent. When a freeze is in place, an identity thief cannot open a new account because the potential creditor will not be able to check the credit file.

Consumers, meanwhile, can "unlock" their accounts temporarily if they are applying for credit or permanently if their security concerns are allayed.

Experian said freezes will be free for victims of identity theft. The fee for other consumers for a freeze - or a temporary or permanent removal of a freeze - will be $10, unless a lower fee is mandated by state law, the company said.

Similar programs already have been announced by the other major credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion.

The move was hailed by Consumers Union, which has been pressing states to adopt legislation allowing the freezes and has been urging the credit bureaus to do so unilaterally.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, noted that 39 states and the District of Columbia already have enacted laws requiring the credit bureaus to enable consumers to protect their credit files with freezes. In some cases the protection had been limited to ID theft victims.

"All three credit bureaus should be commended for extending the security freeze to those states that don't already require this identity theft safeguard," Jeannine Kenney, a senior policy analyst with Consumers Union, said in a statement.

Still, she said, the cost should be lower and the process for imposing and lifting freezes should be easier. Consumers Union urges that the fee should be no more than $5 to impose a freeze or temporarily suspend it, and nothing to permanently lift a freeze.

An estimated 10 million consumers are victims of identity theft every year. In some cases, it involves the misuse of a credit card, but in others, thieves can open accounts, buy property and take on huge debt in the victim's name.

Experian will continue to offer the placement of fraud alerts on a credit file for consumers that may be victims of identify theft at no charge.

Consumers can ask credit bureaus to put an alert on their file if they believe someone has stolen their Social Security number, credit cards or other personal data. Once an alert is in place, retailers and other would-be creditors have access to the credit reports but are supposed to do extra investigation before granting new credit in the consumer's name.

[Radio_Lady]

14. Experience with protection offered by bank credit card companies?

We have often been queried by one of our credit card companies about buying their protection service and have always turned it down because it has not seemed to be worth what it would cost. However, we are curious about whether one of these companies is offering a comprehensive service that is anything like what LifeLock appears to be offering.

Please advise anything that you might know about this. (We sort of like the idea of what LifeLock is offering, but have some reservations about their stability given that they are a start-up and given that their principal founder has a history of bankruptcy.

[emald]

15. when my credit cards were hit, secondary to my credit being hit,

Wells Fargo informed me of the problem. I live in Alaska and my cards were being used in Florida, strange to say the least. Within minutes thousands of dollars were rung up. I was informed by WF and immediately they stopped the card, took off the charges and sent me a new card. They did exactly what I thought they should have and saved me much hassle. But they were of no use in someone using my information to open new accounts, and that is where the real problem arose. I was not protected by Lifelock at the time but I sure wish I had been. The amount of time I spent was well beyond the average of 40 hours stated by the gov for time spent recovering the problem and the cost was in the hundreds of dollars. Lifelock is cheap by comparison given the amount my time is worth to me. Now, should this happen again, and I was in no way at fault for the problem, at least Lifelock will take care of it and reimburse me should the issue push that far. They send the investigators, they do the paperwork. Thats what your paying them for. BBB shows only ten complaints for the past couple years for Lifelock and all but two or three of those were related to payment issues. I couldn't access the specific complaints but maybe someone else more savvy can. BBB seems to think highly of this company. As to their being a startup they started in 2005 and registered with the BBB in May of that year. So there are two and a half years more or less of data and only ten complaints. I found this encouraging though some might take issue with this number. Only ten problems in two and a half years with the number of subscribers they have seems quite good to me. Hell my insurance company rating my home has hundreds in the last year and I send them MUCH more than 12 dollars a month.
As to the bankruptcy of the founder that I wasn't aware of but seems a non issue to me. Many people have bankruptcy in their background for a number of reasons and for me it seems out of whack to not work with a guys company because he has bankruptcy in the past. Thats my opinion anyway and for what it's worth the Lifelock payment is cheap peace of mind. I heartily recommend them based on my own situation. As I stated I spent many hundreds fixing problems that Lifelock will now fix for the great sum of twelve bucks a month. Hope this has helped. I rarely recommend anything but this seems like a no brainer to me.

[Radio_Lady]

17. Thanks so much for your answers here. We're looking at this service again and trying to

come to some conclusion on this.

[Chovexani]

18. Stay far, far away from this company!

The Phoenix New Times (our local alternative weekly) did a big expose on that guy back in May. HUGE crook. In fact he stole his own father's identity and opened a bogus American Express account, running up thousands of dollars in charges.

Edit: Here's a link to the article. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-05-31/news/what-happened-in-vegas/full

[Blue-Jay]

19. Blue-Jay has had no luck with LifeLock.

Blue-Jay is hungry.