I was reading some of my favorite blogs and I came across a post about how the blogger had just signed up for LifeLock and they were very happy to have their credit protected for $198/year for the family. Now, I applaud taking extra measures to protect yourself, and I had heard the radio ads so I was interested in what this was all about.
But after I read the post, and then checked out their website I was concerned.
Here is there 5 point plan from their website:
Here is what LifeLock Offers You
- Proactive Identity Theft Protection
- Reduce Junk Mail
- Reduce Credit Card Offers
- $1 Million Service Guarantee
- Only $10 per Month
The only problem with that is that is a free service that the credit bureaus offer. People can easily place a fraud alert on their own account, for free, by calling Experian at 1-888-397-3742. A Fraud Alert blocks your name being rented to Credit Card Companies which reduce the junk mail, the proactive protection is LifeLock working with Experian to set the free lock.
So what you get, is the $1 million insurance policy. $198 for $1MM in protection isn't crazy, but like a bad potato the deeper I peeled the more rotten this looked to me...
It must work the CEO gives out his Social Security Number!
Well sort of, this protects you from someone opening a regular credit card at a bank as they all use the big clearing houses like Experian. Actually after the ads hit CEO Todd Davis WAS hit with identity theft as this Phoenix New Times piece explains further. He found out when a collection agency contacted him about a $500 loan he took out and didn't pay on, surprising him as he never took out the loan!
Other disturbing things came up as well. Apparently the Founder of LifeLock Robert J Maynard's story of starting LifeLock didn't check out either. He was arrested because of HIS own gambling debts not due to identity theft, in fact his own father accused Mr. Maynard of committing Identity theft...on him!
After that story hit in May, Mr Maynard resigned from LifeLock and is no longer involved in the company.
So how did the Identity Theft work out for the current CEO Todd Davis? It did get resolved...the company hired an outside firm to fix it!
Too many warning bells for me. Run Forrest!
Detective Racer X...out :)
