Lifelock Sucks
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Sunday, February 12th, 2012 (No comments yet) |
His SSN is 457-55-5467.
And he's making millions!
Lifelock is that company where the CEO posted his Social Security Number with a challenge to take his identity (which someone promptly did). If you've been considering getting the service, wait. First realize what you're paying for.
If you were to go to their site and read through what they actually do, you'll find that you're not getting much for your money.
NOTE! This is for the original version of Lifelock. Due to legal settlements, they've changed their service somewhat and details are below.
They place fraud alerts. The problem is, fraud alerts are practically worthlesss as far as protecting you from ID theft.
They renew the fraud alerts every 90 days. Note that this isn't actually a separate benefit, but they sure seemed to want to have six benefits to their service instead of just five.
They remove your name from pre-screened credit card offers. You can do it yourself, freely, and quickly at optoutprescreen.com. Also note that this is a one-time benefit and not something that you should be paying monthly for.
They order your credit reports once per year which is easy for them because they can use the free annual credit report you are due by law. The bad part here is that if you wanted to use the very clever advice of getting your report from one of the companies every four months so you can keep a semi-constant tab on your credit, you can't. Lifelock blew your free coupons all at once.
They'll keep a list of the companies you have credit cards and such with so you can quickly call them if your wallet is stolen. The FDIC has a great guide about how to do this yourself including the advice to carry a bare-minimum of cards and information and to make your own call-down list.
Lastly, insurance (which some people claim you can't collect on).
Worst of all, the "fraud alert" features (1 and 2) that they provide have been blocked as a result of a recent lawsuit by Experian who claimed that Lifelock was abusing the fraud alert system by placing them for EVERYONE instead of just people who feel in imminent danger of ID theft.
Lawsuit Changes
Because of the lawsuit, they had to pull the fraud alert "feature" from their list of services. Along with some other recent changes I didn't update on, here is the complete list of Lifelock "features" as of Sept '09:
LifeLock Identity Alert™ - In theory they somehow monitor whenever a credit application is entered and alert you. Isn't this what Credit Monitoring services do?
eRecon™ - They claim to monitor known criminal websites for your personal information. If they find it, they alert you and help you remove it.
My BS-meter is blinking for two reasons. First, what known criminal websites are out there that Lifelock can get to more than anyone else? If they're public websites, a google-alert would work just as well (and it's free). If they're NOT public websites, how did Lifelock get access to them? Do they have criminal connections?
Second, if they're known criminal websites, why haven't they been taken down? What's lifelock going to do to "resolve the problem" that the police couldn't do?
TrueAddress™ - Monitors change of address databases and alerts you if someone tries to change yours. I don't know how well this works or even if it works as described, but if it does, this might be the first real service that Lifelock provides that isn't easy and free to do yourself.
WalletLock™ - Already described this
Credit card offer opt-out - Already described this
Request your annual free credit reports - Already described this
24 Hour Phone Number - As it should be.
$1 Million Guarantee - Sort of. Read on...
In a different class action lawsuit, the lawyers argue that despite the "1 million dollar guarantee", it's actually almost impossible to collect. The guarantee only comes into action if you can show a "defect in their service", but...
the only way fraudulent activity could result from a defect on LifeLock's behalf was if the company failed to sign its customer up for a fraud alert or add its name to an opt-list. Even if that happened, Carey said, it would be difficult for a customer to prove it was LifeLock's fault.
When all is said and done, Lifelock is nothing more than credit theft insurance with little more benefit. And rather than pay a monthly fee for insurance, you are far better off getting a Credit Freeze which actually does protect against ID theft rather than just try to clean it up after the fact. Factor in that a freeze is a fraction of the cost of insurance (and free in some cases), Lifelock just doesn't have a leg to stand on.
Jeremy, it is my belief that a consumer advocate should present things in a fair manner especially since identity theft is such a serious crime. It is not fair to make blanket statements like fraud alerts are useless and then not back it up. I think in this case you are doing your fans a disservice. Everyday LifeLock, LoudSiren, TrustedID and other companies who place fraud alerts turn down illegally sought after credit or rather their customers who are notified do. People who have placed fraud alerts themselves have also been protected. The only concern with fraud alerts is that a creditor may not call you which gives you recourse through the FACT ACT passed in 2003 which states they must either call or take reasonable steps to verify the identity of the person requesting credit. If it is not you then they obviously didn’t take reasonable steps.
This is why reputable businesses like Banks, department stores, mortgage brokers etc. already have procedures in place to call and I realize fraud alerts are not full proof but that is why you also have insurance.
Personally I think it is better than a freeze for the following reasons: Your credit is still readily available to you without the long delay of a freeze. A freeze has to be done with the credit agencies who have long been known to provide little to no customer service and many, many people who have dealt with them want nothing to do with them again. Freezes don’t provide insurance and also cost money though as you mentioned it is free for identity theft victims in some states. A freeze ranges from $5 to $20 dollars and in the large majority of states is $10. So thats $30 because you have to place them with all three agencies. Also if you want credit you will have to lift the freeze and that is another $10. If you have a problem lifting your freeze you will be dealing with a credit agency, good luck getting a hold of them and having them do something for you. They don’t like freezes or fraud alerts because it is an extra cost to them and they prevent the agency from selling your information which is their main source of income. Ask anyone who has tried to have them remove wrong information from their account and I mean anyone and you will see what I mean.
You have to realize that many people want quick access to their credit and are willing to pay a company for the services they provide even if they can do it for free. Look at all the grass cutting companies, maids, painters – people can do this themselves and save money but they choose not to. Heck last year I even bought vegetables that I could have easily grown in my garden. I usually do grow them, and must admit I even enjoy doing it, but last year I did not feel like doing it. This is my choice and there is nothing wrong with that choice. Presenting people with options by saying you could do it yourself or freeze your accounts as an alternative to LifeLock would have been a good article but to blatantly say that fraud alerts are useless is simply wrong. For many people it is their best option. Why do you think the State of Ohio and Connecticut chose fraud alerts to protect their residents after a breach. A freeze may have been cheaper for them but they realized their residents did not want their credit tied up with a bureau. In fact I don’t know of a single company, City, State, or Institution that provided a freeze to those effected by a breach. Maybe, just maybe their is a reason for this and maybe you should reconsider your position and at least say this choice might be right for some people but I prefer a freeze for the following reasons… that would at least not make your readers feel stupid for having purchased a service or placed fraud alerts themselves. Also it would be far more accurate then a blanket statement that fraud alerts are useless.
Fraud alerts depend on the granter of credit to modify their behavior due to a warning check mark. Given the retail stores where I worked, the low paid staff aren’t that trustworthy to protect identities especially when faced with a large sale that management is eager to push through. That doesn’t even count employees that are on commission. If you had followed the link in that line you would have seen my article explaining all this (my “backing it up”).
Even worse, fraud alerts require some justification and the credit reporting companies can refuse to place them. I honestly don’t know how companies like Lifelock handle this.
As for freezes, just because a credit reporting company will resist them and has poor customer service is no reason to avoid freezes. Good states have laws requiring timely response to requests for freeze and requests to life the freeze. As for money, you can’t seriously think that a one time $30 (to place all three freezes and an occasional extra $10 (depending on how many times per year you need access to your credit) costs more than insurance! For $10 per month (Lifelock’s pricing) you’d have to open 12 new credit accounts per year for a freeze to cost as much! If someone seriously uses that much credit, then maybe a freeze is a bad idea, but I don’t know many people like that. And keep in mind that freezes blocks theives access to your credit, insurance DOESN’T.
And your last point that people are lazy and willing to pay for it… this is true. But for people who want to feel secure and realize that the times they actually need to allow companies access to their credit is very few and far between, there is no better way than a credit freeze. Not by a long shot. My whole point was that if you have a credit freeze, you don’t need the fraud alert in the first place! So people who don’t want to have the chore of protecting their credit shouldn’t pay a monthly fee to avoid it, they should just freeze it.
As for why states didn’t offer freezes: freezes cost, fraud alerts don’t. What state would make a choice to pay for hundreds of thousands of people to get a freeze versus fraud alerts which are free. Now the state can seem to be protecting people which will hopefully stem lawsuits and they didn’t pay a dime.
Besides, I refuse to take criticism from someone who runs a Lifelock advertisement site and won’t even leave their name in their comment.
Jeremy:
I agree with your comments on Life Lock. They actualy suck. Most reputable financial institutions will not sell their product. I see that Truliant Federal Credit Union does however http://www.truliantfcu.org
I work as a security director for a major financial institution and your response from one person on the blog is incorrect. If he wants proof of how credit works, tell him to e-mail me. I have thousands of cases where fraud protection did not work. The word is CREDIT FREEZE which is mostly free for military people and about $10 for others. Life Lock and other companues like them feed like sharks on stupid and misinformed people. I guess my question is why would you buy fraud insurance from a company when the CEO was arrested for stealing the same info? Why would you buy the crap when Todd Davis’s social security number was used to commit the same fraud is supposed to safe guard. In other words, life lock is a bottom feeding company who pray on the weak and stupid misinformed.
Dam then Paul Harvey is really getting paid a lot to lie to us all
For those who don’t know, Paul Harvey is a radio personality who has been recommending Lifelock. And yes, he probably gets paid well to do so. To be fair, he might actually believe it’s a good service. A lot of people who don’t know much about it do.
[Jeremy: I debated about letting this comment go, but this company has begun a somewhat agressive web-campaign to market their coming service. I don't know anything about them other than they have a poorly designed website that takes way too long to get into and that they've been leaving "coming soon" comments all over the place.
Anyway. Now you know they exist. Deal with them if you want, but I doubt they'll be worth the money either. When they finally explain what they do, maybe I'll do a post on them as well.]
Where LifeLock doesn’t excel Lockdownmyid.com will.
We have improved and made excellent identity theft
prevention and we will soon be launching our service.
LOCKDOWNMYID.COM
Jeremy,
I have decided to respond to your comments made regarding LOCKDOWNMYID.COM
Our company welcomes consumer advocates life yourself to the process of
finding the right company to help prevent the increasing problem of identity theft.
You stated we have a poorly designed website but our site has not launched as
of yet, but we do have a pre-launch page up designed to stoke curiosity until
we finally launch. I wanted to explain our service so that there is no mistake.
LockDownMyID.com will be a web based task oriented service directing the customer
to extract their personal data fromn the web, junk mail lists, etc. We not only
help customers prevent ID theft but we also help them protect their privacy.
We DO NOT ask the customer for power of attorney, nor do we store any personal
identification on our server like soc security number, credit cards, etc. We
give the customer REAL identity theft insurance in case of any identity theft
they might encounter while subscribed to our service. We also provide a re-curring
monthly newsletter, fraud alert call forwarding to 3 numbers designated by the customer,
and 90 day e mail alerts. We DO NOT recommend a credit freeze because it is not in the best
interest of the customer simply because it makes it harder on the customer if they wish to
make purchases, and have their credit checked for whatever reason.
Here are the basic differences btwn LockDownmyID.com and the rest of the competiton:
1.) We DO NOT ask for power of attorney. Control of identity remains with the customer. ( As it should be)
2.) We are a monthly subscription service and offer 50% of all monthly revenue to our affiliates.
The other services out there DO NOT offer a share of the revenue, nor do they have an effective affiliate
program in place that offers monthly residual earning potential for their affiliates. Our service is designed
to spread awarness of the identity theft problem, offer solutions and services to prevent it and educate the
customer. Customers also get access to all new innovative services and updates as they are added. We will
strive to be the best legitimate web based service for consumers who wish to prevent identity theft.
Prevention is key. Also, having piece of mind in case of a theft instance is paramount to each and every one
of us because in reality we are all potentially at risk. Without prevention if you were to become a victim
of identity theft it would be costly and some have even done jail time because they were not able to prove
it wasn’t them. Again, I applaud your efforts to inform the general public and hope you like our service once
we launch. We are aggresively promoting the prelaunch of our service because we see too much deceptive marketing
regarding some companies and wish to improve upon the entire process of identity theft prevention.
Sincerely,
Anthony Tomei/Vice President
e mail: anthony@lockdownmyid.com
http://www.lockdownmyid.com
Awesome
Well Anthony, you certainly responded to my comment and I respect that. I don’t agree with your advice about Credit Freezes (obviously, just look around my site), but I can see that you believe in the service you are providing and that alone looks to me to be a step-up from Lifelock.
I wonder about your claim that Lifelock has a poor affiliate plan. If that’s the case why are there SO many bogus Lifelock review sites out there? I have a link to the article I did about it up there in the “Related Stories” section. Not that I care, Lifelock can certainly afford to pay people well since they’re robbing people blind (in my opinion).
Jeremy,
Lifelock has a very poor affiliate plan. It’s not readily available and takes 24 to 48 hours to get their approval to start promoting the service. If you look on their website there isn’t even a link to an affiliate program, it’s like you have to hunt for it. That’s not good marketing at all. Our company is web based and affiiate driven/word of mouth much like the PayPal, or E bay model. It’s simple, easy, annd more affordable than LifeLock. We will constantly improve upon our service so that we offer the very best in identity theft prevention. I have also left out a few gadgets to our service that will also set us apart from the competiton as well. Those are confidential until we officially launch. We appreciate folks like yourself who make an effort to inform the public because an identity theft prevention service must be as transparent to public scrutiny as possible if they are to retain their intergrity and longevity. LockDownMyID.com plans of getting a big percentage of LifeLock’s market share.
We believe our service is much better.
Sincerely,
Anthony Tomei/Vice President
e mail: anthony@lockdownmyid.com
http://www.lockdownmyid.com
I’ll take your word for it since I haven’t studied it myself. And as long as you are honest about what you offer and what you don’t, I can say good luck on your service.
WOW. Enough is enough Gents !
We have Anthony Tomei the Vice President
of Lockdownmyid.com proclaming how great his service is. Nice touch Anthony to be on blogs – shows you’re aching for advertising.,
AND when you go to his website http://www.lockdownmyid.com – oh gosh – THERE IS NOTHING THERE. COOL graphics saying he’s coming soon. Nice.
This blog is pathetic. I’m signing up to Lifelock if this is what their competition fights with.
Jeremy, shame on you. You started off with a somewhat meaningful point and then …. gosh – you SUCK-CUMMED (succumed) to Anthony. If your company was real, you wouldn’t be …. well um, sellng yourself.
\
You sound like a plant from Lifelock. If you read my article, you wouldn’t consider Lifelock no matter what any of their competition is doing.
And, “shame on me”? What are you talking about? I told Anthony I respected the fact that he responded to criticism and that if he truly believed he was helping people, then he’s better off than Lifelock at least. I wasn’t endorsing his service, in fact, I seem to remember saying “Deal with them if you want, but I doubt they’ll be worth the money either”, but you probably didn’t read that either.
WOW! Keep Blowing Yourselves… Sounds Like He’s Blowing A lot of hot air for lifelock. LOL!
This is an awesome piece Jeremy! – I will promptly forward a link to this site to everyone I know.
Keep up the excellent work!
I am sad to see these wannabe companies try to push you around.
Thanks again!
Kam.
Become a Bum, no-one wants your Identity then..
That’s what I did! Sorta.
I’m in debt up to my eyeballs with a little consumer debt and a mountain of uninsured medical expenses. If a thief were to steal my ID, I’d tell him, sorry sucker, it’s your problem now. Why don’t you go get us a secured credit card so we can start rebuilding our credit?
Jeremy,
Good info. I found a company that sells prewritten letters for the data vendor optouts, credit freezes and links people to the companies you have talked about. I used them because I liked that for a small fee you get the prewritten letters. check them out http://www.optoutdetectives.com
Thanks man Richard
I want to point out that after evaluating this service and trying it myself, I do actually endorse The Opt-Out Detectives. You can manually remove yourself from all those data brokers yourself, but this one-time service (not a monthly plan) can help save you time. It’s worth checking out.
I had been a Lifelock member for 6 months and never recieved a credit report. I still had tons of pre-approved credit cards coming in the mail. I found out that my wifes’ account had never been activated although they charged us for it! Lifelock was quick to take my money and the aftersale service was very poor to nonexistant.
After reading the other articles on this post I immediately terminated my account with Lifelock.
On the flip side I have not had any luck trying to place a credit freeze on my account. I called the big 3 and got recordings that wer not helpful. Can anyone point me in the direction of freezing my credit?
Trell, Congrats on stopping that worthless service before you’d been taken too long. Calling credit reporting companies is a waste of time no matter what you want from them. I’ve been told that they change their phone number every month to avoid people being able to contact them too easily. I don’t doubt that for a second.
Anyway, I was able to place a freeze for myself and my wife fairly easily. Check out this link:
http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html
Let me guess you sell credit freeze. The idea behind lifelock is not only to prevent credit card fraud but to notify you if it happens. Nothing is full proof, sure you can freeze everything with your credit but that is like locking yourself in the house to prevent sunburn. Sounds perfect for older people who do not need new car, home, school loans. Locking credit is fine if you don’t mind the work to unlock it if you need to use it. Lifelock may not be fool proof but at least they notify you of the fraud and help you do something about it. The people that get into real trouble are those who have no idea it it happening. If you don’t like it fine but unless they have personnaly failed you stop bashing them to promote your agenda. Go ahead and take on Pepsi verses Coke or something, at lease then you will have an opinion based on using the product.
“Let me guess you sell credit freeze.”
You’re a bad guesser. Credit freezes are done on a “fee” basis that you pay directly to the credit reporting companies and you can’t sell them (as far as I know). Even if you could, credit freezes are completely free for id theft victims and in some other cases too (depends on state law).
“sure you can freeze everything with your credit but that is like locking yourself in the house to prevent sunburn”
You’re also not that good with analogies. Credit freezes are like having a locking front door so you can decide who can come in your house and who can’t. Having Lifelock is like leaving your front door wide open, but having some guy stand there and tell people not to go in. When he goes in anyway and robs you of everything you own, Lifelock will pay you for what he took IF you can prove that they didn’t tell the guy not to go in.
However, you are right that I do bash Lifelock for personal reasons. They rip innocent people off who don’t know any better while failing to even mention, promote, or (GASP) include the only thing that does work. They’re either incompetent or crooks and I do take that very personally.
Glad I came here and read this before signing up for Lifelock. Thanks Jeremy!
I’m glad too. Saving people from getting taken advantage of is essentially why I started this site in the first place. Thanks for letting me know that it’s working
Jeremy,
Thanks for the great info. Froze the credit and opted out of prescreen in about 1 hour at a cost of $30.00 total. It’s my credit and I should control who looks at it.
You’re welcome. If you’re in a good state, you’ll be able to unlock your credit easily via their website or a phone number within 15 minutes or so. If not, it will be harder, but a little delay will help keep you out of credit trouble.
Just remember any time you need to let someone check your credit that you ask which company they use so you can unlock just one (which saves money versus unlocking all three).
[...] and critics of LifeLock. The most interesting? A guy named Jeremy Duffy who has officially proclaimed that LifeLock Sucks. Check out his web page devoted to LifeLock. It makes for interesting reading and gives even more [...]
OK, I read your info here and am now wondering what to do.
So, I’m flat out asking; based on the following, what should I do?
I want my credit & ID secured.
I want to be called if someone tries to get credit using my ID and/or SS# so I can verify.
I want to protect the entire family in the same manner.
I want one throat to choke if there is a problem.
I do not want to do the leg work to accomplish this. (I’m willing to pay a fee, but I do not want to be gouged)
Where should I go to get this done??
Thanks!
There’s no one that will freeze all your credit reports for you that I know of, but it’s a simple process you can do yourself and it’s a one-time deal (nothing you have to maintain or bother with). The only time you have to do anything is when you actually want a new credit account but even that’s pretty easy.
Wow, your site just saved me $10 a month, keep up the good work. Will look at other options, with a freeze on my top ten list.
Having just moved to the USA from the UK, i am amazed how such a great country has such shitty consumer protection laws raging from the stores to false advertising, maybe Michael Moore should do his next movie on this.
Identity theft is rife in the UK and Europe with the underworld (Russian mafia etc) actually planting people (or worse,recruiting them by threats) in banks and superstores so they can get your details, i would guess the states is Worse as you leave your mail out on the road and Chip and PIN is nonexistent.
I myself had by card cloned (along with 600 other people) as i paid for gas at ESSO (Peterborough,Uk) , turned out that Esso’s high tech security had been hacked by a maintenance crewed in the pocket of the polish mafia.
Anyway enough of my ramblings, i applaud your use of the freedom of speech and i love the States.
Thanks Pete. It’s extremely difficult to keep your information under control, but keeping people from using it is far easier. Get a freeze and spread the word.
So do they have id theft insurance if you want to handle everything else yourself? Is it worth it if you freeze your credit?
Joe, I don’t think any existing ID theft prevention service is worth it once you freeze your credit. What are the odds that someone uses your name or SSN when being arrested or committing a crime and how easy is it to clear your name if the crime takes place in one state while you live and work in another entirely?
The difficult part about ID theft is credit based which credit freezes essentially block.
Good site with good information.
Part of the problem is there is a tremendous amount of misinformation about ID theft to begin with. To be sure there is a lot going around, millions of ID’s are stolen annually. If yours is stolen though most often that is as far as things go. Most ID theft folks don’t know what to do with the data after they steal it. If you get hit bad though it is not a nice thing.
I don’t know if there is a truely good insurance plan out there to cover your butt if you really are a victim. I heard one advertised the other day as a $25 rider on your homeowners and that is a good deal if it works.
All of the other stuff, Lifelock, the credit monitoring services, they are all bogus ways fo stealing directly out of your wallet and offering little or nothing in exchange.
Dave, is that $25 per month? If so, that’s definitely not a good deal at all. Besides, if you freeze your credit reports, there’s no need for the insurance really at all.
Is ITAC SENTINEL PLUS pretty much a scam too?
Brad: Yes, Itac is a monitoring service with a partial insurance component. It’s not a scam in that it tells you exactly what you get, but like Lifelock, they over-state their protection and recovery abilities. Monitoring does NOT protect against ID Theft. It can’t by definition.
Everyday I go to work and lie . I lie to over a million members about what LL does . I hate lying but in these economic time how would I feed my family? What Jeremy says is true this company is stealing your hard earned cash. They don’t do anything and what they do due they out source not to mention all of LL information is located on a Server and trust me not very secure. They treat employees really poor it’s no wonder customer service sucks.
You do have to feed your family, but always be looking for a job where you can live honestly. I used to work in sales and I did what they asked me to do, but not completely. I sold their extended warranties and rebated products, but I did everything I could to teach people how to get their money’s worth from each. I refused to outright lie to people though and was able to find another job before the store figured that out.
Thanks Jeremy I am looking as hard as I can for a new job, but if I don’t fib to the customers I will get constructively fired . Lifelock is the worse company I have ever worked for do you know they don’t give employees proper lunch and break periods. They say because they are in Arizona it’s right to work and if you don’t like it leave.
I would check with Arizona’s department of labor to see if what they’re doing is even legal. If not, you could file a complaint:
http://www.ica.state.az.us/Divisions/labor/index.html
Thanks Jeremy. I knew from the jump that LifeLock did nothing but “automate” (if you can even call it that) a consistent request for fraud alerts on your credit. Honestly, for something that can be done on one creditor’s site in a matter of 60 seconds, it’s not worth $10/mo. All the rest is fluff; a gimmick. The FTC sent me a cool little pamphlet recently which outlined all of the steps that LifeLock takes on your (paid) behalf. They didn’t expressly mention any of these pseudo-credit-protection companies by name, but they certainly explained everything you can do and emphasized how easy things are to handle yourself (such as opting out of pre-screened offers). Even though I knew most of what they were explaining, I was pleased to see a strong move toward spreading awareness of available DIY alternatives to these costly, and useless, services.
This is a bit off topic, but it’s the reason why I’m visiting your site today. Just yesterday while at Best Buy, my girlfriend and I were attempting to apply for their credit card. Normally (I assume) they would handle this at the desk, but during system down-times (or maybe high-loads), they send customers to a little computer to apply on their own. The computer is designed to navigate the Best Buy website and do some product research, but since it does have internet connectivity you can apply via their online application located on the site. So, the representative requested that my girlfriend apply for credit on the product search terminal, openly visible on the store-room floor. We proceeded to apply for the card, and just as she began filling out her information, a well-dressed couple walked passed and glanced at the screen. Me, being oblivious to what was going on, hadn’t noticed them taking a peek. My girlfriend saw it, though, and told me to move to her right side to block their view. Within a split second the couple walked passed/behind me and began to engage me in conversation (keep in mind I just thought they were being friendly as they waited for the computer to free-up). He asked about my alma mater (I had on a sweater with the university name), congratulated me on my graduation, and proceeded to ask me: what I studied, what I was doing with my degree, if I lived near by, if I owned a home (which I didn’t hear correctly, and answered incorrectly to the question I thought I heard; my girlfriend later informed me to this fact). Long story short, my girlfriend snapped after they walked off: “if my identity is stolen, you know the exact moment they got my information.” My mind just flipped. Was I honestly the victim of social engineering? I doubted it, until I saw them casually exiting the store not even 2 minutes later. It hadn’t occurred to me that he was attempting to keep my attention while his girlfriend was looking over *my* girlfriend’s shoulder as she was filling out the credit application form. Of course, my girlfriend was kicking herself over the fact that she should/could have either (a) told them to leave while she was handling this business, or (b) not filled out anything while they were there. She said she was trying to cover the screen as best as she could, but, she was still quite paranoid. The important information was visible, her name, SS# and date of birth. It was just amazing how smooth and friendly these people were, and while we might be jumping to conclusions, the conversation was just so awkward after reflecting back on it, that they were surely up to something shady.
We returned home and promptly placed the fraud alert on her credit via Experian’s website, and then I did so as well (I’ve been wanting to anyway). I planned to renew the alerts every 90 days after they expire, but after reading your wonderful site, I’m wondering if a credit freeze is more appropriate.
I have a few questions that are lingering that I was hoping you could answer.:
1.) I understand that it can cost roughly ~$10 to place a freeze on your credit through each agency, is this a one time fee? (This question might make more sense after reading #2)
2.) You mentioned that to “lift” the freeze, it would also cost roughly ~$10. How does lifting work? Does it lift forever, requiring another $30 to re-establish a freeze? Or, is the lift temporary?
3.) If it is temporary, how quickly can it be lifted (hours, days, weeks), and how do you allow a specific person to access it; or put another way: how does the credit bureau know who to let access the credit?
4.) Does placing a freeze on your credit negatively affect your credit score?
5.) Do I need a reason to place the freeze, such as recently being a victim, having a police report, or knowing for *certain* my information has been stolen?
6.) Do we receive any notification when an individual attempts to access our credit? If not, how do we really know if our data has been compromised? Does this simply keep you secure in the fact that they can’t use it at will? I mean that’s nice, but I’d like to know if people are applying for credit under my name/information.
7.) I understand that identity theft is almost exclusively committed for financial gain. However, if they were to sell the identity to say, an illegal immigrant, how would we find out that there is another individual living and using our social? They could be filing income taxes, etc. How would a credit freeze affect this matter? Logically, they’d realize they couldn’t do much in terms of credit, but if they’re content living without credit they could still hurt my reputation/cause me financial distress.
8.) Opting out of the pre-screened offers sounds nice, however I’ve received a few that were enticing. Is there a way to opt back in? I can’t even recall the last offer I’ve actually pursued, but having the option available might be beneficial during hard times (like if God-forbid I needed to make a quick credit transfer to a new card at 0% and no fees that was offering 0% interest for X amount of months).
I feel like I had a few more questions, but I can’t think of them at the moment. If you’d be so kind, I’d love to get your feedback on the above questions, though. I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks again for your work here, it’s a positive message that I, too, try to spread to my family and friends.
Yes absolutely get a freeze. They are cheap because they only charge when you lock them initially and then every time you need to get new credit (credit checks) which for most people isn’t that often. It doesn’t affect your score, you don’t have to have a reason, you receive notification every time someone tries to get in, but they DO NOT see it. They can ONLY have access when you let them. There are types of ID theft that have nothing to do with credit and freezes won’t help that as much. As for Opting in, I don’t really know, but I wouldn’t do it. You can just browse online for good offers, but you’ll never get as good a deal as you would through a credit union (if you’re part of one or can become part of one).
Anyway, almost all these answers (and more) are on my credit freeze page here: http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/credit-freeze
[...] They prey on the uninformed to make a buck and that’s what ticks me off about them. Here is a link for more detailed information on how to better protect yourself for free. View This Pollpolls [...]
Ok so I was a little in left field with my last comment about Paul Harvey. But I have a new question Jeremy. Do they sell our personal information Like I heard?
Based on what’s written here:
http://www.lifelock.com/about-us/about-lifelock/terms-and-conditions
they claim not to. I have no other information to the contrary at this time.
Here’s the updated Equifax Online Freeze link:
https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
Jeremy,
Keep fighting the good fight. As a Phoenix area resident, I am all too familiar with Lifelock and its disreputable CEO, and its business practices. I was actually hopeful that the $35 million fine the FTC gave them, it would be game over for them, but new investment has given them a short reprieve from the grim reaper.
Ordinarily I would champion a company in my area, but Todd Davis’ company deserves all of the bad press it has received. The company is a mess and employees would be wise to look elsewhere for employment, and customers to look elsewhere for ID theft protection (there are reputable competitors out there).
It will be a brighter day when justice, however delay, is finally served and Lifelock closes its doors forever.
-CT
Amen. Companies that prey on people this way are no better than Bernie Madoff and in some ways are worse because they use the letter of the law to push it as far as they can go. And $35 million? I’m pretty sure it was only 12, but either way what difference does that make? They make an estimated millions every month. It might set them back a little, but why would they stop when it pays to keep going?
I have read all blogs on this site and as a Security Director (38 years), Law Enforcement Officer, and Licensed PI, NO IDENTITY THEFT INSURANCE is great. I do not see any products that will prevent or even slow down ID Theft. The consumer is our worst problem. Most people dont realize that they have NO PROTECTION when they use the mail box, write checks, apply for credit, and trust family. I do thirty or more Identity Theft and Fraud investigations weekly. The processes used by all of the so called Identity Theft Insurance Providers can be done by the consumer. If you will stop and think about the data you are talking about, you will realize that this data is easily available. The question that should be addressed is what do you do once you have found out your identity is stolen. Identity Theft Insurance in a nut shell is a useless product that has gotten a lot of people rich. I consider the pushers of these products thiefs and as guilty as most of our crooks.
Thanks Darrell as you are so right about insurance. However, people CAN protect themselves if they control their information better and freeze their credit reports as described here:
http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/guides/identity-theft
Looks like LifeLock STILL exists today while http://www.lockdownmyid.com was just a wet dream.
The lockdownmyid website does NOT exist at all today…
So who is the breadwinner of the two ??
Are you saying that the fact that one company is out of business and another isn’t means… well, anything? I don’t understand your comparison.
PLEASE do not let yourself get sucked into Lifelock like I did. Once they have you, you have to FIGHT to get from paying the $220 annual renewal!!! I was on the phone forever with this guy who would relentlessly quiz me, and and would not stop asking for me to justify canceling. I kept saying I just want to cancel, and he kept saying why! Lifelock has provided *NO VALUE*. Period. They don’t protect anything more than you can protect you account yourself. Total waste of money. And once you sign up, you’re trapped.
Jeremy,
Good info, and you are correct. I wouldn’t go as far as saying services such as Lifelock offer no value, but the question is whether the cost is worth the limited value they provide. As someone who has had credit freezes in place for over three years now, I would highly recommend it to everyone. Yes, it can be a nuisance to unfreeze the accounts when you are in need of credit, but the process is straightforward. Since our family’s freezes have been in place, we have purchased two cars and a home as well as a couple other credit related items. The pain of unfreezing the accounts is small relative to the actual protection it offers. The service that I would be willing to pay for is a company who would manage the freezes for me, so that I could just place a single call, anytime of day or night, and have them unfreeze the accounts temporarily for me when I need credit. It would be well worth an annual or monthly fee to me to have someone do it for me rather than go through each bureau’s process. If you or anyone is aware of such a simple straightforward service, I would appreciate a link. TrustedID seems to offer this service but only if you sign up for their “monitoring” service first which as has been clearly articulated not worth it… at least not to me.
I wouldn’t say NO value either, but consider that getting lice DOES help support the circle of life on this planet so there’s SOME value to that too…
By the way, I called out Todd Davis a while back and said that if Lifelock actually froze people’s accounts and managed the freezes for them, I’d support Lifelock. Not surprisingly, they haven’t done so because I don’t think they want to actually have to spend any of the money they’re raking in.
Jeremy,
I happen to stumble on your website after being a LifeLock membe from two years and not really feeling that there was any benefit. And honestly the only reason I was searching for this info was because my renewal was coming up. Boy am I glad I found your site! Thanks for all this great info and I took your advice and froze my credit accounts. Thanks and keep up the good fight!!!
Glad to help. I wish I could be loud enough to reach as many people as they do, but I’ll take one at a time. Just let other people you know in on the secret: Lifelock sucks, credit freezes are awesome!
Poor article. LifeLock stopped doing fraud alerts long time ago. Before writing an article about LifeLock, you could at least first inform yourself about their current offerings.
Poor reading friend. If you read the article, you’ll see this section: “Because of the lawsuit, they had to pull the fraud alert “feature” from their list of services. Along with some other recent changes I didn’t update on, here is the complete list of Lifelock “features” as of Sept ’09:”
Still, I added a note before the first section to make that more clear.
WOW! I had signed up last month for Lifelock, now I’m wishing I didn’t. It pays to do your homework, and until I saw this link when I went to get back into Lifelock to put the “wallet items” into their “Protection” I never knew how bad this company actually is now.
That’s what I get for being hasty about doing this. I just had sinus surgery on April 2nd, so I thought this would be one way to protect myself before I had the surgery instead of waiting to do this later on. Just part of my “get it done now instead of waiting until later.” (anti-procrastination) Again…..”Haste-makes-(or made in this case)-waste.”
I’m not the smartest person especially with a computer, so my question(s) is(are) what do you do to protect your credit, SSN, bank/credit union accounts, even retirement accounts? I’m sure you’ve heard all this before, I know I’m looking for answers now. Thanks for your info and any help. Mike
Do spend some time on the various identity theft pages I have here and you’ll learn plenty, but the short of it is this: Freeze your credit reports (done by visiting the three credit reporting company’s freeze pages) which prevents people from getting credit as you. Always resist any attempt to collect your data, especially your SSN. When I was at the dentist last week, they wanted SSN, but I had called the insurance company ahead of time and verified that they definitely do NOT require SSN for payment so I refused. The dentists pushed, I resisted. They still don’t have my SSN (and won’t get it).
For your accounts, that’s all a matter of your bank’s quality. Don’t use services like mint.com that ask for your banking password, keep your passwords safe, keep your browser secure (don’t use Internet Explorer) etc. That’s the short of it, but there’s a lot more detail (and justification for these things) on my other pages which should be linked that the top, the bottom, the side, and in this article too
I was a victim of ID theft. The person who committed the crime was a disgruntled ex-roommate.
After going through the emotional turmoil, nearly losing my job as a result of bad credit, and the stress of recovering my identity I was looking for ID theft insurance and protection to NEVER go through anything like that again. I joined Lifelock atin 2006 at the recommendation of a friend. I called them up, they made a lot of guarantees and promised that are posted here including the guarantee to help me if anything ever happened again.
Several months after I joined the program, a new credit account was fraudulently opened. I pulled my documentation on the original ID theft and Lifelock said even though this was a “new” act of fraud hitting my credit report after I joined Lifelock, the account was opened before I joined and they would not be able to assist for free. They asked me for a fee of $300 to work with a third party company they contract with. I asked the name of the company, their reputation, and what services they provide and they would not give me any of this information unless I paid them that $300. I told them to bugger off, I would handle it myself.
I should have dropped the service then, but kept it in the event something else came up.
I got hit with another trade line on my credit account, medical fraud in January 2010. Lifelock said the original date of service on the medical account was more than 6 months earlier and not eligible for intervention. I had junk debt buyers making me nuts. Fortunately, I found an attorney, sued the collection agency. As soon as the collection agency received notice of the suit, they dropped the claim and made the mistake of selling it to another collection firm who also damaged my credit starting the dispute process all over. I again call Lifelock and they are of no help. My attorney I already had on retainer sent them a letter notifying them I was represented and requesting all communication go through that office. The good news is, the courts found in my favor and attorney fees were paid by the respective collection firms and I walked away with $5,000 for my trouble.
In the meantime, Lifelock orders my credit reports for the Free Annual and because of the fraud alerts they place… The credit reporting agencies refuse to supply a copy of the report automatically and want me to complete forms and send additional documents to prove my identity. So that service is pretty much useless.
I get agitated and my bank (Bank of America) has a credit monitoring service available for $15 a month that includes credit scores. I sign up for that service in Summer 2010 to see if they are any better than Lifelock. I am not a Bank of America fan but figured it can not be worse.
I decide to take a loan and go back to school. Lifelock fails to detect the new loan. Bank of America Privacy Assist calls me on the phone and sends me an email notifying me a loan was taken in my name and to log into my account and verify the alert for accuracy. With the alert was instructions on what to do and where to call to have Travelers Identity Theft Insurance initiate a claim form on my behalf.
I am blown away.
Over the last two years, I have two more cases pop up surrounding the same person as before trying to open new accounts to test the waters. One was checking account that was not detected by anyone, it was overdrawn and landed in collection. Lifelock refused to intervene, Bank of America Privacy Assist has it resolved and off my credit within 5 days.
Last March, I had $10,000 improperly seized from my bank account. – execution of a judgement. Not only was the account opened in 1999 by the disgruntled roommate but the creditor initiated a law suit and obtained a default judgement. I never knew about the account and never knew that a judgement. When I called Lifelock they refused to send a claim form and refused to assist getting the $10,000 back. I called Privacy Assist, they assigned an attorney to my case – helped me navigate the courts to get the judgement vacated and all funds restored then they initiated a suit which is still pending against the law firm and their client.
When I told lifelock I wanted to cancel and explained why, they claimed that all of my claims were not covered because they originated the day the fraud took place. Since the roommate started opening accounts in my name around 1999 any and all claims that pop up no matter what the circumstance that are traced back to the same person trying to open another account is not covered.
The person committing the crime moved to the other side of the country and local law enforcement claims there is nothing they can do and no one seems to want to put the jerk in jail despite the fact the person brags about how they got away with it on their very public Facebook page.
Lifelock is a waste ….
Thank you for sharing your story! I hope things go smoother in the future.
Big disappointment! Made a $100,000 purchase, financed $50,000 and Lifelock didn’t have a clue. Kinda says “Lifelock Sucks” major canal water.
Wow! Great find! I had the information filled out at LifeLock and something told me to Google before I clicked submit. Never clicked it.
I’ve been a member of LifeLock since 2008…. it has changed over the years (and they never notified me). I just opened a CC account and a month later, I never got a letter in the mail to let me know that an account was opened in my name. I called and they said it was b/c that merchant wasn’t on their list. Oh really? Nobody let me know of a “Merchant List”.
Also, I haven’t received my credit report in about 2 years…. I called and they said that the bureaus aren’t sending them out for them anymore. Ok, so “Why am I paying LifeLock??” Grrrr… I took about an hour to get them myself this evening.
/
I am dealing with ‘phantom scammers’ (men with heavy Indian accects who call ans demand money from you to pay for a payday loan you never got,or will give your info to the police) and have optoutprescreen and 90-day credit bureau monitoring. What you need to do is tell the IRS (no joke!). The IRS has 3 of identity theft: first, you already are a victim; second, your wallet or purse was stolen; and third, the above mentioned did not happen but there are circumstances that might lead to identity theft. Fill out the form and tell them your circumstances and they will be contact you of the investigation. The optoutpresreen is excellent, as well as a constant use of a cross-cut shredder. Other than the shredder, ($40 maybe) the rest is free and should not have to pay someone to them for you. The scare tactics used in their commercials is shameful, and will make you use pre-paid debit cards-or use only cash only(obtained from your bank of course).
Good advice, though using a credit card is far safer than Debit cards for anything where the card number is stored or transmitted in a database (like when buying things online). Check out http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/guides/identity-theft/federal-credit-card-liability-limit/
Jeremy, I gotta thank you for this. I also have to admit initially I could relate to your very first comment’s words (from user Identity Theft Protection) and found you coming off harsh. By the time I read your post, I had already bought the ultimate plan from LifeLock and placed a credit alert on my file. I was happy to be doing “something” about my situation; you bursted my bubble. It felt as if LifeLock was paying off because I received a credit alert from them (a false-positive). However, when I received an alert for a fraudulent activity, I realized how near useless their service really is. The alert helped to keep me informed about the incident but even though I had to contact LifeLock to do not sure exactly what anymore (I called them, spent 20 seconds letting them know the activity was fraudulent and 10-15 minutes updating my account information, though it was already up to date), in the end, I did all the leg-work anyway: I contacted the business from their credit alert which found a new fraudulent account (they were able to close it) and then I contacted the police. To this date, I’m not sure what LifeLock actually did for me besides notifying me of the alert. They claimed they would follow up and contact third-party entities; yeah, I held my breath for that. I call in with what was an emergency to me and they’re gonna have me update my information? If you can’t empathize and at least fake like it’s an emergency and equally important to you too, then you don’t deserve my money. That’s not $25/month worth of service. I took your advice and froze my credit via all 3 agencies and feel much more at ease now. Will be cancelling my LifeLock membership in a few days; have to admit the aggregation of my public records search and the alerts do have some usefulness, just not $25/month worth and fall short of what someone whose identity has been compromised expects and deserves. Thanks again for posting this and your readers for commenting and helping me make the right choice.
$25 a month!? Wow!
I’m thrilled if I helped you see what you were actually getting for your money (not a whole lot). Though your credit reports are now protected with the freeze, remember to be stubborn about giving away any important data to businesses or anyone else that asks for it (what I call “Data Defense”). The less information that’s out there, the less likely the bad guys will come across it.
Wow buddy, you really have a hard on for life lock. I’m not a fan, but you treat anything they do as wrong because you can do it yourself. And with a vengeance…
Guess what, some people either don’t have the time or the desire and they want to PAY a trustworthy company to do it. How about an unbiased review of what they do.
jezzz
Your comment is a little confusing and also absurd. If you read what I wrote, you’d see that the issues with Lifelock have exactly nothing to do with what you claim an everything to do with being misleading and not offering anything of value. It’s not that “you can do it yourself”, it’s that, for the most part, Lifelock leaves you to do everything yourself whether you use their service or not.
We used LifeLock for about two years.
After several problems with fraud that Lifelock didn’t even know I stopped paying them.
The Credit reporting agencies are criminal.
They let almost anyone file a claim against you. You can hardly get your info and getting them to remove fraudulent info is nearly impossible.
Since 1985 an really strange name, “Geneaux XXXX” has been on the CR at my home address. Later my wife had a previous address in Houston show up. Not so. Never been to the address. Later I was added to that same bogus address. Then Geneaux showed up on them.
Well I have tried several times to get this corrected. I’ve had no success. Now they have the three of us, me, wife, and mysterious Geneaux having lived in Houston, two addresses, Conroe, TX, Nope not so, Mont Belview, tx nope never even been there.
Wonder where they will put us next.
These credit reporting agencies should be done away. They are really bad.
THANK YOU for writing this! I already contacted all of the Consumer Watch news channels in my area (SF Bay Area) today to get a story started on them. I signed up with LifeLock 1.5 yrs ago after my identity was stolen. In that time the thief has successfully managed to open 2 accounts (that I know of). I’ve never received an alert or notification from LifeLock for either of these. With both accounts I just happened to find out. I would like to sue them to high heaven if I could.
I’m a marketer by profession and their messaging is completely misleading. When you sign up on the phone they lure you in on how awesome their benefits, protection and coverage is. Both of these fraudulent accounts opened used my SS#, which they claim they protect, IDENTITY = SS# Please let me know if you come across a civil action suit against LifeLock. I’d be happy to jump on the bandwagon!