Kirbykicker
Ingleside,#2Consumer Comment
Sat, March 14, 2009
For all the commercials we see of LifeLock I did some digging...I have no opinion as of yet to their abilities....I was looking to get an account set up..Still pondering...Anyway they don't seem to be a ripoff per sey...But they do have some large loop holes in their insinuations... Funny, if you were to have an account it would be voided if you handled your S.S. # as he does... http://www.answers.com/topic/lifelock-inc (Information on LifeLocks founders...ONE WHO steals his fathers IDENTITY ! The elder Maynard denied filling out an application for the card, which listed one of his son's former businesses as its billing address. When asked by the Phoenix New Times whether he believed his son had assumed the identity of his father to obtain the American Express card, Maynard, Sr., said, "I can't disagree with that." ID fraud-prevention firm LifeLock hit with customer lawsuits As the CEO of LifeLock Inc., Todd Davis has attracted considerable attention and controversy by publicly posting his Social Security number on the company's Web site and publishing it in ads all part of an effort to highlight LifeLock's identity theft protection service. Computerworld By Jaikumar Vijayan, May 23, 2008 As the CEO of LifeLock Inc., Todd Davis has attracted considerable attention and controversy by publicly posting his Social Security number on the company's Web site and publishing it in ads all part of an effort to highlight LifeLock's identity theft protection service. But now LifeLock customers in three states are suing Davis and his company for false advertising and deceptive trade practices. Class-action lawsuits filed over the past few weeks in New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia allege that Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock is overstating the capabilities of its service and misleading customers about the guarantees that it makes to customers. "Contrary to the all-encompassing impression created through LifeLock's advertisements, the protection it claims to provide only extends to limited instances of identity theft," claims the complaint filed against the company in New Jersey's Middlesex County Superior Court. The complaint also asserts that LifeLock actually has failed to protect Davis' identity, saying that his personal information has been misappropriated in at least 20 separate identity theft incidents. For fees of US$10 per month or $100 annually, LifeLock offers to remove the names of customers from junk-mail lists and place credit alerts on their behalf with all three of the major credit reporting agencies. The alerts require creditors to verify the identity of individuals before opening lines of credit or issuing new credit and debit cards in their names. As part of the service, LifeLock automatically renews the credit alerts every 90 days, which is the maximum period for which they can be placed. According to LifeLock, a subscription also gets customers one free credit report annually from each of the credit reporting bureaus, plus help in notifying the agencies if a payment card is lost or stolen. In addition, LifeLock claims to monitor underground Web sites to see if the Social Security numbers and other personal data of customers is being illegally traded or used. The company, which claims to have more than 900,000 customers, says that it will pay up to $1 million over the course of a subscriber's lifetime to cover any fraud-related costs caused by a failure of its service. The problem, according to Justin Klein, an attorney for the class-action plaintiffs in New Jersey, is that LifeLock's service doesn't offer the amount of identity protection that its advertisements might lead people to believe. "LifeLock is advertising services that it simply cannot provide," Klein said, adding that the company also conceals some crucial facts from customers. For example, the service is only useful against fraud that stems from access to a full credit report, Klein contended. He said that LifeLock's claims make it appear that the company can protect customers against all kinds of identity theft, fraud, including incidents resulting from hacking and password theft. But that is not the case, Klein said. LifeLock's ads also fail to mention that some of its services ? such as the three annual credit reports it offers to obtain for customers ? can be had for free, or that repeatedly placing credit alerts on people's records can adversely affect their ability to get loans and other types of credit, Klein said. Furthermore, Klein claimed that LifeLock's $1 million reimbursement guarantee is only enforceable in certain very limited circumstances ? for instance, if the company failed entirely to place a credit alert on behalf of a customer. The language associated with the guarantee also ensures a great deal of protection for LifeLock itself, according to the New Jersey complaint. LifeLock officials couldn't be immediately reached for comment on the lawsuits. The class actions aren't the only legal issues that LifeLock needs to contend with. In February, credit reporting bureau Experian Inc. sued the company in U.S. District Court in California, claiming that it was engaging in deceptive and fraudulent behavior by placing false fraud alerts on the consumer credit-history files maintained by Experian . Experian alleged that LifeLock's actions were causing millions of dollars in excess administrative costs at the credit reporting firm and that the practices eventually could reduce the effectiveness of fraud alerts. In response, Davis disputed Experian's interpretation of the use of credit alerts and said that what LifeLock does is perfectly legal. He also claimed that the lawsuit was largely motivated by concerns that LifeLock's service was competing with Experian's own fraud monitoring business and making it harder for Experian to sell credit records to third parties. Computerworld ConsumerReports.org Credit and Loans March 2008 LifeLock's ads are bold, its protection less so The TV ad depicts the financial equivalent of touching a hot stove: A man drives on busy downtown streets with his Social Security number plastered on a mobile billboard. "I'm Todd Davis, and I'm here to prove just how safe your identity can be with LifeLock," says the company founder and CEO. "That's my real Social Security number." LifeLock spent $5 million on TV and radio ads nationally in the first half of this year and claims to have 300,000 subscribers. It has been endorsed by actor Fred Thompson (before he officially became a presidential candidate) and radio personalities Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Paul Harvey. But as Harvey might say, now here's the rest of the story. THE REAL DEAL What does LifeLock do to secure your identity? For $10 a month or $110 a year, LifeLock instructs the top three credit-reporting agenciesEquifax, Experian, and TransUnionto place fraud alerts on your credit reports and renews them every 90 days. The service also tells the three bureaus that you opt out of receiving preapproved credit offers and asks the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to remove your name from mailing lists. Of course, you can do those things yourself free. And fraud alerts are no guarantee against ID theft. Some lenders don't see them and allow crooks to open accounts in other people's names anyway. "We know this isn't 100 percent bulletproof," Davis told us. "You can still be a victim. If that happens, we're there to clean up the mess." Davis says that the company guarantees against all losses and expenses a client incurs up to $1 million. LifeLock's guarantee will restore stolen funds to your bank accounts, get fraudulent credit accounts closed, pay lost wages, hire credit-repair firms, and do "whatever it takes to get your life back," Davis says. But the customer agreement doesn't actually bind LifeLock to much of what Davis promised us. It specifically says that the company will not reimburse "consequential damages, such as lost wages." Davis says customers should ignore the fine print: "The lost-wage clause is there because insurance commissioners wanted to be sure we're not an insurance company. We're not." The contract, meanwhile, is vague about reimbursing stolen money: "We will pay professionals to assist in restoring any such loss." The guarantee hinges on "the failure or defect in our service," which the contract defines as initiating requests with credit bureaus and the DMA. But Davis says the contract really means something else: "If the fraud alerts did not do what they were intended to do, then the service failed. I don't just mean that my system didn't send them correctly," he says. THE BOTTOM LINE LifeLock's claims and Davis' reckless display of his Social Security numberwhich the contract considers a breach if you do it and which did result in a theft of his identityseem to overstate the security provided. Davis disagrees. "I'm being bold and disruptive to get people's attention," he says. "It's not 100 percent safe. However, if you have our service and your ID gets stolen, I'm going to help you."