Life Lock will pay up to $1 million dollars if your identity is stolen |
I knew somebody would try to monetize the fears over identity theft. Check out the CEO of Life Lock flaunting his real social security number pictured above. Not quite like walking on broken glass with bare feet, but perhaps the technology equivalent.
Skeptical? Me too. The Life Lock promise is inviting:
No lock is perfect. So, even if a thief is able to steal your Identity while you are our client, we will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to restore your good name and we will re-imburse you up to $1 million should you have any losses. There is not a single company in this business that puts their money where their mouth is like we do.
What services does Life Lock provide? They block your credit so only you can use it, stop pre-approved credit offers, “drastically” reduce the amount of junk mail you receive and ensure that things go smoothly when you apply for credit. They contact the four major credit reporting agencies and put alerts that will require notification if anyone tries to get new credit, change your address, expand credit lines, open checking account, get insurance or utilities, etc, Life Lock clients will be called directly for their approval.
The price per person is $10/month or $110 if paid annually. Life Lock will protect children under 15 for $25. Life Lock has an affiliate program but none of the links in this post are affiliate links. I first learned about Life Lock in a radio ad this morning on Howard Stern. According to their affiliate signup page they’ve been covered by CNBC, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Money Magazine, ABC News Now, MSNBC and others.
Some Googling revealed this year old Wired story:
Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said individuals can do most of what LifeLock offers on their own at no cost. And LifeLock’s money guarantee is a bit of false bravado because federal law protects victims of fraud from paying for financial losses incurred by impostors, she added.
Told my wife this morning I’m probably going to sign up and check this out. If/when I do, I’m not going to display my social security number like Life Lock’s CEO, but if their service does everything they promise and provides insurance up to $1,000,000 for financial losses as a result of identity theft. She doesn’t see the need and value.
What about you? Would/will you sign up? Does identity theft concern you enough to pay for a service like this or are you just fine pulling down your credit report annually and taking action yourself?
Did this post make you go hmm?
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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Yawn. Don’t waste your money.
Comment by Maurice Prather — March 19, 2007 @ 10:20 am PST
You’ve tried it, Maurice? Bad experience? Or you’re just going off what you see? I didn’t see very many customer reviews which increases, not decreases, my suspicion in the service.
Comment by TDavid — March 19, 2007 @ 10:31 am PST
The article featuring Beth Givens is 100% correct. Everything LifeLock does you can do yourself for free. In addition to this…you are forced to grant LifeLock a limited power of attorney for them to deal with the credit companies on your behalf. Basically…youre putting yourself at more potential risk and paying money for low level account reps to do manage your identity protection when you could be doing it yourself.
Comment by David — March 26, 2007 @ 2:18 pm PST
Hey David (#3) — if you take the DIY route of putting a credit alert on your own file, doesn’t that stale off after 90 days? So the DIY approach requires a quarterly letter? Curious. Sadly, cannot do a credit ‘freeze’ in my own state yet…
A
Comment by Alan Rimm-Kaufman — April 28, 2007 @ 8:04 pm PST
You guys might find this interesting though:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-05-31/news/what-happened-in-vegas/1
Comment by Steve — June 7, 2007 @ 10:15 am PST
You can actually take care of the fraud alert very quickly over the phone with the credit bureaus. There are different lengths of time you can request and would simply have to put it on your calendar to re-new it at that point. Anyone that doesnt have a few minutes to do that probably isnt too concerned about the safety of their identity anyway.
Comment by David — June 7, 2007 @ 3:50 pm PST
Happened to catch this post. Not sure if you already know, but their are some fresh items about Lifelock hitting the news.
Comment by ed dickson — June 8, 2007 @ 12:43 pm PST
I saw that one of the people behind Lifelock has been through bankruptcy twice, is that what you’re talking about ed dickson, or something else?
Comment by TDavid — June 8, 2007 @ 12:50 pm PST
The New Times article was great! Im glad to see that someone has done their work and uncovered the truth about LifeLock, its services, and its company officers
Comment by David — June 8, 2007 @ 12:51 pm PST
Ed… Post the links if you can. I’d be interested in seeing any additional news releases
Comment by David — June 8, 2007 @ 12:52 pm PST
Here in Washington state you can get a credit freeze, but you must provide a police report showing you were a victim of identity theft to get it. That’s crazy. Anybody in this day and age should be able to freeze access to their credit report without a crime being committed first.
Source:
http://www.dfi.wa.gov/consumers/education/security_freeze/security_freeze.htm
Comment by TDavid — June 20, 2007 @ 3:51 pm PST
I don’t know I personally would consider signing up for it as I have just recently myself been a victim of identity theft…although I have already put my own fraud alerts on my credit report, I would like the convenience of knowing that if something DOES happen to leak through that I’m thoroughly protected regardless…also I’ve looked up the company on BBB, they are members and their report so far is satisfactory…I’m not sure if that makes a difference or not.
Comment by Nicky — August 31, 2007 @ 3:41 am PST
LifeLock provides services, most of which you can do yourself:
1. Add fraud alert with 3 credit bureaus on your behalf. You can do it, but have to repeat it every 90 days (stupid credit bureaus delete fraud alerts after 90 days). I expect this tak to take about 15-30 minutes every 3 months if doing by yourself.
2. Give you credit reports from 3 credit bureaus. Again - you can do it once every year for no charges. Expect to spend about 45-60 minutes once every year for this task.
3. If your identity is stolen while as a legit customer, LifeLock will provide lawyer and even compensate you for losses.
I see some value in the first item. I may forget to renew the fraud alert if doing by myself, but LifeLock does not forget. In addition the $1 million guarantee gives a little piece of mind too.
For a family of 4, it will cost about $243 per year ($99+$99+$22.50+$22.50). That is about $20 per month. I think this is small price to pay if you are unable or unwilling to do some legwork.
Comment by Josh — October 6, 2007 @ 9:05 pm PST
Well in a nutshell here it is. If LifeLock’s services work so well, why did Todd Davis the CEO of LifeLock become an identity theft victim. You know if your advertising budge is $15 million, you can convince a lot of people. Thruth be told, financial identity theft only accounts for about 51% ofthe identity theft cases. Also truth be told the $1 million gaurantee, read the fine print! They raise the red flag at $1000.00 anyway there are some companies that even if you are not a member that will do your recovery for $500.00. Oh well there is a sucker born everyday.
Comment by gobluemann — November 15, 2007 @ 11:53 am PST