California Court Leaks SSNs and Medical Data Online

(Image is in the Public Domain)

In case you didn't already know, state offices posting "public" records online for anyone in the world to see is a huge and persistent problem.

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Lady Sued Exquifax and Handed Them Their Butts

(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

Not only did a lady win almost $3 million for suing equifax, but now they have to pay another half million in attorney fees. The story is that Equifax refused to fix her credit report after she was a victim of identity theft.

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Lending Tree Has Data Breach – Offers Poor Advice to Victims

Bad play Lending Tree. Bad play.
(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

Apparently a Lending Tree employee gave internal passwords to external lenders without permission. This resulted in people being offered loans by lenders who shouldn't have been able to see their data. While Lending Tree doesn't believe that this particular activity is likely to lead to ID theft, it is a problem nonetheless.

I wasn't going to cover this story because it's so typical of what's happening recently, but this stuck in my craw. In a letter shared with the Consumerist by a reader, Lending Tree is recommending that people get fraud alerts on their accounts as a precaution.

Fraud alerts are practically worthless! Don't even bother. Get a freeze and you'll actually be protected.

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Another Class Action Suit Against Lifelock

(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)
This time, it's in New Jersey.

On its Web site, www.lifelock.com, the company reports that it places requests for fraud alerts with credit bureaus on behalf of its clients. "If someone is trying to use your personal information, you will be contacted by the creditor that is issuing the line of credit," LifeLock says. "If you receive a call and you are not the one applying for credit, the transaction should be stopped immediately." But creditors are not required to contact applicants even if they have fraud alerts in their files, says the Pasternak lawsuit. The Experian lawsuit makes a similar argument. The Pasternaks also blast LifeLock’s $1 million guarantee, claiming that the fine print renders it virtually worthless.
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South Carolina Does Credit Freezes Right!

(Image is in the Public Domain)

South Carolina's Governor just signed into law a bill that gives SC residents the ability to freeze their credit for free!

And of course there's always this:

The credit reporting industry has opposed such legislation relating to credit report freezes. One concern is that too many states will have different regulations, which would make it difficult for credit reporting bureaus to comply. That's a good argument, and it's why this issue needs to be addressed at the federal level. In the meantime, South Carolina was right to take action on the state level.

Imagine that! Different states have different laws! Oh wah wah, cry me a freaking river! If they wanted to do business in Mexico or Canada, do you think there might be some different laws? It's not as if there aren't companies who do business in tons of different countries in the world successfully despite all the different laws and customs.

This is such a bogus argument, I'm going to have to try to remember not to even bother getting worked up about it anymore.

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Georgia Credit Freeze Bill in the Works

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Though the credit reporting companies scrambled to allow freezes in all states most likely to prevent each state from enacting their own laws with lower fees and more restrictions than they wanted, many states are still pursuing their own legislation (as they should).

Georgia's proposed law would allow freezes for only $3 and would automatically be free for anyone 65 and up (the first state I've heard of to have such a provision). Though it's not law yet, this is one of the better ones I've seen.

Arizona is also busy on a credit freeze law, but I wasn't able to find any details on how well their law is written.

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Lifelock Adds a REAL Service!?

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According to Businesswire.com, Lifelock will be adding a real bon-a-fide service to their program.

Effective immediately, LifeLock will begin rolling out eRecon(TM), a regular patrol of the Internet in search of the social security numbers, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers and email addresses of LifeLock members to protect against the information being illegally traded or sold online.

What is not explained is what parts of the Internet will be "scoured" or what they will do when they find this information. But in either case, a service that actually monitors your online profile is hinting at becoming actually useful.

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Bogus Lifelock Sites Litter the Web

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Lifelock is that company run by the dude who boasts, "Here's my Social Security Number! I can't be hurt by ID Theft Man, I'm In-VINCIBLE!!!!" or some such nonsense.

First of all, he was robbed by some guy in texas which proves the point I've been trying to make all along: Lifelock doesn't PREVENT ID theft. But more important than that is how this company advertises. Besides having ads just damned everywhere on the web, I've found a wealth of fake sites that pretend to be 3rd party recommendations, but have little to no content other than Lifelock ads disguised as reviews. Whether this is the direct result of Lifelock marketing or the fault of over-zealous users of a Lifelock affiliate program, but either way, having sites like this really damage what little reputation Lifelock has.

http://sixfoldsecurity.com/financial/identity_theft.php

Created: Nov 2007 by Larry from Bothell WA

Though the site has a ton of links and categories, the only actual page I can load is the one under identity theft which contains lines like "I was skeptical at first" and "Lifelock does a lot more than I thought".

[+] Sixfold's only article

Here's their whole ''article'' (a.k.a. Lifelock ad)

http://www.lifelock4me.com

Created: Sept 2007 by Marketing Partners INC. St Joseph, MI

This site has no content other than a few pages explaining things about Lifelock.

http://www.igotmyidentitystolen.com

Created: Feb 2008 by Domains by Proxy, Scottsdale AZ

I found this site originally because the very first comment on my "Lifelock Sucks" article was from a guy who left this url with his comment. The comment appeared to be reasonable, if wrong, criticism of my position. But when I went to the site, I found out that it was a thinly disguised front site. Though there are a few articles on it not related to Lifelock, the page navigation consists only of "About Lifelock", "Features", "How Lifelock Protects You", and "Order".

I love their "About Us" page:

About Us

Here at IGotMyIdentityStolen.com we try to focus on protecting you from identity theft. Giving you tips and updating the site with the ever changing identity theft crisis changes. Criminals think of new ways every day to scam innocent people.

Identity Theft has been such a problem in the United States along with the world. So prevent yourself from identity theft.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Please feel free to drop us an e-mail at support@igotmyidentitystolen.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

– Trying to make your life easier,

Mr. Identity Theft Protector

Could you get more generic than that? Note that neither the domain registration information nor the comment left on my site has a name attached.

http://lifelockreviews.com

Created: April 2007 by Whoisguard (a company that shields the registrant)

You couldn't make a better search engine bait site than this. Lifelock is mentioned 55 times in 4 postings (the only four posts on the site) with titles like "A Review of Lifelock", "Lifelock Consumer Review", "Lifelock Million Dollar Guarantee", and "Lifelock – Identity Theft Security or Scam".

And of course, the first line in each "unbiased fair 3rd party review" is "LifeLock is the only Identity Theft Prevention Solution backed by a one-million dollar guarantee!Click here to get a 10% discount."

http://lifelockreviews.net

Created: April 2007 by Kurt from Tallahassee

Single page ad for Lifelock. No other content.

http://lifelockreviews.org

Created: March 2008 by Patty from Louisville

Four posts on a blog, all about Lifelock.

http://lifelockreviews.info

Created: Nov 2007 by Ken from Singapore

Single page ad for Lifelock.

http://lifelock-reviews.com

Started in April 2007, lifelock-reviews.com has put out a wealth of (sarcasm) useful unbiased information (/sarcasm)… into their only two categories "ID Theft" and "Lifelock". Of note, this site includes real news and videos unlike every other site I've seen so far, but the last line in EVERY post is something similar to this: "To purchase LifeLock or get more information please click here."

http://idtheftquiz.org

Created: Sept 2006 by Kurt from Tallahassee

There is nothing, nothing, on this site but a single page ad for Lifelock. I count is as a front site because of this:

We are proud to be working with Lifelock to offer the most comprehensive ID-Security programs available... blah blah blah

Correction: There is something besides the ad. If you look carefully through the ad, there are some links that go to other articles and such promoting Lifelock. There. Are you happy now George?

http://www.identitytheftlabs.com

Created: April 2007 by Domains by Proxy, Scottsdale AZ (another registrant shielding service)

This one is a bit curious. They have information about some other monitoring services as well and aren't as clearly a front site, but they've got the tell-tale signs. They were also started in April of '07 and their postings are heavily weighted towards Lifelock more so than the others they talk about (which, by the way, is only 2 other services).

http://lifelockworks.com

Created: Feb 2008 by Domains By Proxy, Scottsdale AZ

A single page ad for Lifelock. Most notable is that the normal links at the bottom of the page (Contact, TOS, Copyright, etc) all link straight back to lifelockworks.com. They're only there for looks.

This is getting dull so here are some more listed in no particular order

lifelock-promo.com lifelocktv.net safeidentityreview.com getlifelock.net identitytheftsecrets.com reviewsonlifelock.com www.f1racing.ws/ http://www.hillarybillary.com/

And the following are sites that have other posts, but at least one on lifelock that pretends to be a review, but isn't:

http://www.brokencode.us/finance/lifelock-scam/ (3 articles) http://brinformatica.alojagratis.org/2008/04/06/lifelock/ (3 articles) http://mbaonlinedegree.biz/2008/04/10/lifelock-review-for-the-id-prevention/ (1 article) http://dmnewexpress.com/?p=128 (4 articles) http://infinitum-media.com/ (4 articles) http://www.drcopa.com/index.php?s=lifelock&x=&y= (1 article) http://www.ginolopez.com/?p=43 (1 article) http://abshome.blogspot.com/2008/04/value-of-life-lock_13.html (18+ articles) http://msteenybopper.multiply.com/journal/item/146/Lifelock_Promo_Codes (1 article)

And a million more. Just do a search for Lifelock and you'll find them everywhere.

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The Credit Freeze Process in Practice

Note to Author: One of your jtags is missing a closing quote or a />. Your post is currently broken Tags: ,

Hannaford Supermarket Data Breach

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Another breach. Who'd have guessed?

The company is aware of about 1,800 cases of fraud reported so far relating to the breach.
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Making Good Passwords

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Password Protection

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Bad Passwords

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Password Tips and Tricks

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Password Protection

It's really a skill to come up with secure passwords that you can remember. Once you've learned how, remember that it doesn't matter how good you are if you don't protect your password properly.

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Password Mugging

A disturbing new practice among websites and services is where they ask you for your user name and password to other sites. I call this "Password Mugging"

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