For information on Lifelock Command Center, read our review here.

Lifelock’s Basic Service May Leave Some Consumers Feeling Exposed…

In December 2003, Lifelock made waves in the credit industry after the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA forced credit bureaus to allow consumers to place fraud alerts on their credit reports. This in turn forced lenders to verify your identity before extending credit or loans in your name. Fraud alerts are temporary and expire after 90 days. Considering that credit bureaus derive a considerable portion of their income from selling your information, they probably weren’t too keen on consumers restricting access to their credit files. They didn’t mind this too much since the percentage of consumers that were even aware such options existed-much less use them-was minuscule.

Enter Todd Davis and Lifelock.

In its early days, Lifelock built their business around the ability to place fraud alerts and renew them on your behalf, effectively making them permanent.

The credit bureaus sued and argued that Lifelock was trying to “game the system” of fraud alerts to make a profit. In May of 2009, a federal judge ruled that Lifelock can no longer place fraud alerts on its customer’s credit profiles. Since then, Lifelock has moved away from fraud alerts and evolved into a sophisticated identity monitoring service centered around detecting early signs of identity fraud. In January 2010, Lifelock launched an upgraded protection service called Command Center that offers scanning of public databases such as court records and sex offender registry reports.

Is Lifelock A Scam?

With all the recent press about Lifelock, it’s no surprise many people may be a little weary about being sold a bill of goods. Lifelock has been sued, fined 12 million by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive business practices, and their CEO, Todd Davis had his identity stolen at least 13 times. If you think this means identity theft services are one big scam, think again. Read more.

How Does Lifelock Work?

• Lifelock Identity Alert System™

Lifelock continually scans the internet and public databases and will alert you by e-mail, postal mail, and/or phone whenever they detect your personal information being used to apply for many forms of credit cards, wireless services, retail credit, utilities, check orders/reorders, mortgage loans, auto loans and non-credit related payday loans. If the application is fraudulent, Lifelock’s remediation team will take action to help protect your good name.

• $1 Million Total Service Guarantee

Lifelock members have access to a recovery specialist who will spend up to $1 million to hire lawyers, investigators, consultants and whatever else is needed to restore your name. It will not cover lost wages or business profits, direct out of business costs and lost opportunities.

• eRecon™

Lifelock’s eRecon™ service will scan thousands of known criminal Web sites for the illegal selling or trading of your personal information such as your name, address, Social Security number, bank account numbers and credit card numbers. If they find a piece of your identity on one of these black market sites, they will alert you and help you take steps to resolve the problem.

• TrueAddress™

A common way identity thieves operate is by redirecting your mail with a change of address request. Identity thieves can divert your mail to steal your personal and financial information. Lifelock will scan address databases nationwide to detect unauthorized change of address requests. If detected, they will notify you and work with you to help avoid further damage and restore accurate address information.

• WalletLock™

If your wallet or purse goes missing, a WalletLock™ specialist will help cancel and replace the lost contents of your wallet, including your credit/debit cards, driver’s license, social security card, insurance cards, checkbook – even travelers checks.

• Reduce Junk Mail

Lifelock will request your name be removed from marking and pre-approved mailing lists, another potential source of identity theft.

• 24-Hour Support

Lifelock maintains 24 hour direct access to account representatives.

Analysis

At $9.00/month, Lifelock is reasonably priced and if you use any of our links, we’ve negotiated 30 days free and a $21.00 discount off the regular price. Unfortunately there are no price discounts for spouses but coverage for minors is offered at $22.50 per year.

The Lifelock Identity Alert™ system uses multiple technologies and data sources to scan credit applications for member’s personal and private information. Since the introduction of the system in September 2009, Lifelock has reported on and blocked more than 6,200 fraudulent applications for both credit and non-credit services before any damage could be done.

The basic Lifelock service includes eRecon™, TrueAddress™, and annual copies of your credit report. These services will scan over 10,000 underground sites for the illegal selling of your information and detect if your address has been changed in nationwide address databases but the lack of more frequent credit monitoring is a concern.

Lifelock offers the $1 Million Total Service Guarantee, 24-Hour member Service and the WalletLock™ service to help you if you become a victim of identity theft. The only issue with this is the $1 Million Guarantee doesn’t cover wage losses.

Lifelock Opinion

This is the service that started it all. Many of you may remember CEO Tod Davis boldly displaying his social security number all over the airwaves daring identity thieves to steal it. They did. According to the Phoenix New Times, Todd Davis has been the victim of identity theft over 13 times. Apparently it’s still a good idea to keep your social security number to yourself but the fact that after such a brazen display of his personal information, he’s only been victimized 13 times.

Is Lifelock Worth It?

But does that mean identity theft protection is a just a one big scam? Hardly. Consumers just have to understand that there’s no way to 100% guarantee you’ll never become a victim of identity theft. The proliferation of data breaches, online shopping, and internet banking means there are just too many ways for tech savvy thieves to get a hold of your identity. You simply can’t control who see’s your mortgage or auto loan application once you hand it over.

How Does Lifelock Compare?

Lifelock’s basic service falls short when compared to other comparably priced services such as TrustedID and Guard Dog ID; all of whom have matching $1 Million Dollar service guarantees.

In addition to everything Lifelock offers, TrustedID offers generous family plan pricing, antivirus protection, and medical benefits protection. Lifelock may have been the service that started it all but like so many other industries, the trailblazers may have the most market share but are usually not the ones who offer consumers the best value. The competitors who have to offer “more for less” to grab market share usually do.

THE GOOD: LifeLock is a decent identity theft protection service at a reasonable price. They basically single-handedly created the identity protection industry with their bold advertising and are the market leaders in the consumer identity protection industry.

THE BAD: If you are looking to provide protection for your entire household, TrustedID’s family plan offers near identical protection at a significant discount. While Lifelock charges per member, TrustedID charges one price per household. The savings can really add up if you have three or more members in your household. No credit monitoring.

Lifelock Promotion

For more information about Lifelock and its services, visit Lifelock.com. We’ve negotiated exclusive discounts for our readers, simply use any of our links to receive $21 off the regular price and 30 days free. No promotion code is necessary.

Buying Identity Theft Protection In Your Local Grocery Store

When I first started this identity theft blog a few years ago, I didn’t realize how big a problem identity theft would be. But as I’ve watched our blog’s traffic steadily grow and the number of identity theft services grow, I knew I was on to something. But I guess people are really starting to realize they need identity protection when I went to my local Ralphs grocery store and saw this in the aisles.

Now anybody familiar with the supermarket business knows they run on razor thin margins. They’re basically warehouses where they stock inventory and you remove what you want. The checkout aisle is premium space where they try to market goods to the impulse shopper, the person who goes in for one item and comes out with twenty. Because of this, the space in aisle is premium marketing real estate.

The fact they chose to stock the identity theft protection services here says alot about what consumers are buying. But are these products any good?

How Does Kroger’s Identity Theft Protection and Credit Monitoring Services Compare to established companies like Lifelock, TrustedID and Identity Guard?

Absolutely Not, Here’s Why…

To say it’s been a bad few months for the identity protection service Lifelock is like saying Tiger Woods is having relationship trouble. In March of this year, the Federal Trade Commission ruled against Lifelock in a suit brought by no less than 35 state attorneys. The commission announced that it levied a fine of $12 million against the company for deceptive business practices. Basically the government made the case that Lifelock was promising customers that if they signed up with their service, their personal information would become useless to thieves.

Lifelock of course denied these allegations and claimed they never misled customers into believing any service much less theirs could completely protect consumers 100%. Nonetheless the judge ruled and Lifelock was fined.

Then in May a few months later, the Phoenix New Times broke a story revealing Lifelock’s CEO, Todd Davis has been a victim of identity theft no less than 13 times. Todd Davis spearheaded Lifelock’s bold marketing by publicly challenging identity thieves to steal his social security number by plastering it over billboards, radio advertisements and the internet.

The rub is that Todd Davis claims he could be so daring because of Lifelock’s protection. This is like Jenny Craig selling her diet program as she continues to gain weight. I’m no marketing guru but I don’t think this is most effective method to sell something.

Having The $12 Million To Pay

Back in the 80s, there was a famous bond trader by the name of Michael Milken. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges that he violated US securities laws. I’ll never forget as part of his plea, Milken agreed to pay $200 Million in fines. Back then, this was an unheard of amount but Mr. Milken paid it on the spot and served two years in prison. I kept asking myself at the time, “How much money did he make that he could pay a $200 million fine like it was paying a $20 parking ticket?”

Lifelock may have been fined $12 Million for their overly aggressive marketing but they basically created an industry where none existed and because of their bold marketing, they’ve become the market leaders in that industry by a wide margin. None of this would have been likely if they took a more conventional approach.

Sure Lifelock had to pay $12 million but their “deceptive business practices” earned them at least $12 million and places them as the market leader in a billion dollar industry.

But Does It Work?

Only 13 times. Todd Davis blasts his social security number all over print media, the radio, television, and the internet and he’s been victimized only 13 times? None of the amounts are over a thousand and Lifelock was able to resolve all the instances.

You don’t buy Identity theft protection to make yourself invisible to identity thieves, that’s just not possible in today’s world. But identity theft services like Lifelock can drastically reduce the likelihood you’ll become a victim and more importantly, they provide you resolution experts to help you recover should the unthinkable happen.

For more information on Lifelock and how they protect you read our detailed Lifelock review.

myOneLogin Gets Better With Five New Patents

TriCipher, a market leader in Internet-scale and enterprise-caliber identity services,
recently acquired a patent on an advanced identity protection model which involves a
multi-part credential technology for the myOneLogin Identity Services platform. The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued five new patents. This ruling will bring TriCiphers patent portfolio to 25 issued patents, 3 allowed applications, and 7 pending applications.

The new identity protection technology provides secure delivery and storage of
private information by reducing the use of shared confidential information such as
passwords, attributes, and identity assertions. The technology is applied to the
myOneLogin platform to provide mapping for a single identity to more than one
credential with different depths of authentication.

The multi-part credential technology was developed as a result of TriCipher’s
anticipation of increased password and phishing attacks as the cloud computing
concept rises in popularity. The new technology will allow companies and
organizations of all sizes to implement new authentication methods into their existing
platform to provide increased security against attacks on confidential credentials.

The TriCipher multi-part credential technology is available to companies and
organizations in three different solutions which include the on-premise solution, the
TriCipher Armored Credential System, and the on-demand myOneLogin Identity
Service Platform. The new technology provides robust authentication, secure single
sign-on service, federation and provisioning, and authorization to access a “One and
Done” service.

For organizations that require a Web-based on-demand service the myOneLogin
is an appropriate choice. It is also available for standards-based interfaces to
directories, desktop and network authentication, and federation protocols. Models
can also be customized to meet the demands of the organization with on-demand
pricing. The myOneLogin multi-part credential platform represents the first online
identity services platform that provides future-proof identity and protection of
credentials which can apply to thousands of applications. The technology has been
thoroughly field tested for security and reliability.

Visit myOneLogin for more information.

Fraud alerts & credit freezes restrict access to your credit.

Fraud Alerts and Credit Freezes are two processes that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a consumer can use to help protect their credit. These are two of the many tools Identity Protection services use to protect your credit file and while you may find value in having a company place and renew these alerts on your credit file for you, they are available to you at no cost. Knowing and understanding how these processes work can help you evaluate the value in a commercial service and whether it may be right for you.

Fraud Alerts

A Fraud Alert is simply a notice placed in your credit file requesting creditors to verify your identity before issuing credit in your name. The law states that they must use “reasonable policies and procedures” to verify your identity which usually means making a call to the phone number on file in your report.

There are two types of fraud alerts: initial and extended. A consumer can place an initial fraud alert for any reason which will last for 90 days and can be renewed indefinitely. To place an initial fraud alert simply call any of the toll free numbers for any one of the three major credit reporting agencies which will be required to contact the other two. Please visit our Resource Page Link for contact info. After placing an initial fraud alert on your credit report, you are entitled to one free credit report from each of the reporting agencies. You also have the option of having only the last four numbers of your social security number appear on your credit report.

An extended fraud alert is almost identical to an initial fraud alert with the main exception that it will last for seven years. To obtain an extended fraud alert on your file you will need to provide the credit reporting agency with an Identity Theft Report. This report can be easily obtained through your local law enforcement agency or a report through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can file a report with the FTC here. Link Some additional protections an extended fraud alert provides are the requirement that the consumer reporting agencies remove you from junk mail lists for five years and instead of one free annual credit report, you are entitled to two free annual credit reports from each consumer reporting agency.

Credit Freezes?

Credit Freezes differ from fraud alerts by literally locking your credit file. With a fraud alert, a potential lender can get access to your credit file as long as they take steps to verify your identity, which means that although they are required to take extra steps to access your file, the fraud alert does not prevent from getting your credit report. With a few exceptions for existing accounts, a credit freeze actually stops access to the consumer report as well as the credit score. A credit freeze will remain in effect until you remove it or lift it temporarily. A credit freeze is generally regarded as one of the most effective identity theft prevention tools available.

The laws governing credit freezes vary from state to state. While fraud alerts are federal rights intended for victims of identity theft, the availability of credit freezes depend or a consumer reporting agency’s policies. There is usually a nominal fee to place a credit freeze which varies by state and in most cases; credit freezes are free for identity theft victims. Visit the Identity Theft Resource Center’s state and local resource map Linkto see what the credit freeze laws are in your state.

It is important to plan ahead if you need to access to your credit file for any reason. It usually takes a few days and possibly a week to temporarily remove your freeze so a potential creditor may view your file. Although there is no negative effect on your credit file or score for having placed a credit freeze, it will interfere with you being approved for “instant” credit. This is an important
consideration to keep in mind.

What are the limitations?

While fraud alerts and credit freezes are useful and effective tools in preventing identity theft, there is no guarantee those employing these tools will prevent identity theft. While fraud alerts and credit freezes will make it far more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts, it does nothing to stop or address an ongoing problem. It is important to understand that fraud alerts and credit freezes are proactive tools and work very well in preventing potential identity thieves from opening credit accounts without your knowledge. It will not prevent fraudulent activity on your existing accounts.

Also while the law requires creditors to verify your identity, some do not comply or just make cursory calls. Other creditors may not use credit reports and therefore will be unaware of the fraud. There are companies that will extend credit without looking at your report. However, if that occurs, your liability in that case may be questionable if you can point to an existing credit freeze or fraud alert.

Who do we like?

For this type of protection, TrustedID offers the most comprehensive protection. You may wonder why we didn’t choose a service like Equifax’s ID Patrol with its ability to lock and unlock your Equifax credit file without additional cost.. If it allowed you to lock and unlock all the credit reports and not just Equifax’s, they would be our top pick. Unfortunately, they only provide that service for their report and leave you no option for Transunion or Experian. TrustedID allows you to lock and unlock all three credit files with CreditLock. There is an additional charge and a small processing fee but no other service provides this option and is why TrustedID is our top choice for Fraud Alerts & Credit Freezes.