Posted on 04/01/2008 12:59:59 PM PDT by APRPEH
Lifelock Getting Picked Since February 2008, Lifelock, the company that guarantees that your identity will not be stolen has been hammered by legal problems. Lifelock charges consumers $10 a month for the privilege of allowing the company to manage your Fair Credit Reporting Act right to a free initial security alert and which automatically opts out a consumer from pre-approved credit offers for six months. The Lifelock website states:
A consumer must know what it is they are shopping for and buying. Part of the education of the consumer comes from the vendors or retailers where the consumer shops. Lifelock, as quoted above claims that their product “prevents your identity from being stolen before it happens”. Prevents? Come again? It would make sense to say, in the careful speech of legalese, “reduces the likelihood of identity theft” or “works to protect your identity”. The word “prevents” clearly implies a non-conditional protection. A consumer reading this, if he or she is able to overcome their natural inclination to say “too good to be true” might jump at the opportunity to purchase such protection. LifeLock, the industry leader in proactive identity theft protection, offers a proven solution that prevents your identity from being stolen before it happens. We'll protect your identity and personal information for only $10 a month - and we guarantee our service up to $1,000,000. Lifelock website
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ping for later.
They’re still advertising like crazy too.
Had I had them, I wouldn’t have had my identity stolen in January 07 trigging a mountain of bill collectors. It took me several months, a number of affidavits, a police report and probably around 15 hours on the phone to get it all squared away. It savaged my high 700s fico down to the low 700s. I don’t need credit but if I did it would have cost me real money on a house loan or whatnot.
This is not to say that Todd isn’t a crook(I’ve heard he was convicted of something or other fraud related) and that lifelock isn’t a scam(it’s borderline in my opinion). I understand exactly what they do. Drop an initial fraud alert on the account every 90 days and opt out of the credit solicitations. Yes, I could do that too, but for 120 a year, and as lazy as I am about those things, I would have stopped doing it after a while.
sorry you had to go through all that. since you likely have a police report now, you are eligible for a 7 year extended fraud alert (for free) with all of the credit repositories. no need to renew every 90 days. however, you must mail the police report along with the usual identity documents to all three credit bureaus including a copy of a recent utility bill (to verify your address).
“this post details the legal troubles currently plaguing the identity protection company Lifelock”
Experian is suing them because they want to be the only ones who can charge for this service.
I don’t have Lifelock, but hey, it looks like they found a niche and people are willing to pay for it. The credit reporting companies hate this.
Personally, I think the credit reporting agencies should default to the presumption of fraud. I’d love to get a call every time someone wanted to look at my credit file and then decide if I want them to see it. You have to pay for that - not so coincidentally, to the credit reporting agencies!
But if credit reports were “Opt-in” instead of “Opt-out” when it came to the presumption of fraud, then the reporting agencies would have no business.
Experian better be careful suing Lifelock - they may ruin the racket for both of them.
I have a permanent alert from this event. I didn't have to do any of what you said. Experian took care of all of that part of it for me. I ultimately did get a police report but that was afterwards.
what about the other 2 bureaus? do you have an extended fraud alert with Equifax and Trans Union?
the Fair Credit Reporting Act defines the Extended Fraud Alert, who requests it and what criteria is needed to apply it:
(b) Extended Alerts
(1) In general. Upon the direct request of a consumer, or an individual acting on behalf of or as a personal representative of a consumer, who submits an identity theft report to a consumer reporting agency described in section 603(p) that maintains a file on the consumer, if the agency has received appropriate proof of the identity of the requester, the agency shall--
(A) include a fraud alert in the file of that consumer, and also provide that alert along with any credit score generated in using that file, during the 7-year period beginning on the date of such request, unless the consumer or such representative requests that such fraud alert be removed before the end of such period and the agency has received appropriate proof of the identity of the requester for such purpose;
(B) during the 5-year period beginning on the date of such request, exclude the consumer from any list of consumers prepared by the consumer reporting agency and provided to any third party to offer credit or insurance to the consumer as part of a transaction that was not initiated by the consumer, unless the consumer or such representative requests that such exclusion be rescinded before the end of such period; and
(C) refer the information regarding the extended fraud alert under this paragraph to each of the other consumer reporting agencies described in section 603(p), in accordance with procedures developed under section 621(f).
Yes. I did have to fill out affidavits with all three, but I didn't have to give a police report or utility bill. Just had to identify the credit hits that were fraudulent and the addresses that mine shouldn't have been reported against.
The experian lady was able to put the fraud alert on the other two which triggered the affidavits. It's possible that just sending it to my home address is enough to verify residence. I seem to recall that permanent alert wouldn't go in until I filled out the affidavits, so perhaps we're just picking nits at the same thing here.
the credit dispute does not require a police report by FCRA paragraph 611 which explains the consumer's right to a reinvestigation. a police report would trigger additional rights such as trade line blocking while the investigation is pending and the aforementioned 7 year alert.
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