LifeLock owner gets his ID stolen
 

This made me LOL in a major way. Not because ID theft is funny, but because imho, this company is pretty shady.
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SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.


Todd Davis, CEO of Lifelock, uses his real Social Security number in his company's advertisements.

Now, LifeLock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.

Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver's licenses at least 20 times using Davis' Social Security number, though some of the applications may have been rejected because data in them didn't match what the Social Security Administration had on file.

Davis acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his stunt has led to at least 87 instances in which people have tried to steal his identity, and one succeeded: a guy in Texas who duped an online payday loan operation last year into giving him $500 using Davis' Social Security number.

Paris said the fact Davis' records were compromised at all supports the claim that Tempe, Arizona-based LifeLock doesn't provide the comprehensive protection its advertisements say it does.

"It's further evidence of the ineffectiveness of the services that LifeLock advertises," said Paris, who is lead attorney on the three new lawsuits, the latest of which was filed this month.

Davis learned about the fraud in Texas when the payday-loan outfit called to collect on the loan, he said. He didn't get an alert beforehand because the company didn't go through one of the three major credit bureaus before approving the transaction.

Paris noted that LifeLock charges $10 a month to set fraud alerts with credit bureaus, even though consumers can do it themselves for free.

But Davis stands by his company and his advertising gimmick, which has appeared in newspapers and on billboards, radio and MTV. He even broadcasts it by bullhorn on walking tours through crowded downtowns.

"There's nothing on my actual credit report about uncollected funds, no outstanding tickets or warrants or anything," he said. "There's nothing to indicate my identity has been successfully compromised other than the one instance. I know I'm taking a slightly higher risk. But I'll take my risk for the tremendous benefit we're bringing to society and to consumers."

The lawsuits, for which Paris is seeking class-action status, highlight the fundamental limits on how much security identity-theft companies can provide.

Companies like LifeLock can help guard against only certain types of financial fraud by helping consumers set up alerts with credit bureaus, which inform them when someone tries to open a new line of credit or boost their credit limit to finance a buying binge, for example.

The services don't guard against many types of identity theft such as use of a stolen Social Security number on a job application or for medical services, or even the instance of an arrestee giving police a stolen Social Security number to shield his own identity.

LifeLock is also being sued in Arizona over its $1 million service guarantee, which the plaintiffs claim is misleading because it only covers a defect in LifeLock's service, and in California by the Experian credit bureau. Experian accuses LifeLock of deceiving consumers about the breadth of its protection and abusing the system for attaching fraud alerts to credit reports.

Security experts say complaints about the company reinforce the time-honored wisdom of keeping your Social Security number secret.

"There's been a lot of marketing, a lot of hype about LifeLock," said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. "The question is, 'How much protection does it really buy you?"'

"There is no company that can guarantee they can protect you (completely) against identity theft," Stephens said. "Absolutely nobody can do that."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/22/....ap/index.html

hehe that hurts :)

its easy to say in hindsight and try to sound smart after the fact... but as soon as i heard the commercials where he was daring people to steal his identity and giving out his social security number... my only thought was "well... there is only one way this can end..."

its like when companies are challenging hackers to break into something... it always end in tears for the people making the challenge... yet no one seems to learn.

This makes me want to send all my personal info to epassporte :)

Two points

The service they offer you can do for free.

They claim if your identity is stolen you're covered for up to $1,000,000. IF they actually stand by that then maybe it might be worth it even if they can't protect you 100%. I'd like to hear from people that had their identities stolen and where LifeLock paid up.

lol, that is pretty funny... just saw those commercials yesterday

Oh the irony :)

In the Ass!!!!! pretty ironic :) ..

lol thats great

That's really funny...

Social Security number was NEVER intended to be secure nor secret.

And furthermore was never meant for any other use beyond a number for social security related record keeping purposes.

Many older SS cards issued even stated something to the effect "not for identification" right on the card.

Anyone with any sense already realizes LifeLock is basically a credit bureau monitoring service much like all the others one sees advertised on TV, etc...

What's ironic, according to the article, is that Experian is accuing Todd Davis of deceptive marketing, which is very ironic when Experian conducts it's own share of deception, such as with Experian's FreeCreditReport.com that many people confuse with the truly free AnnualCreditReport.com

Ron

Exactly...

I second that thought as well!

LOL Who in here joined Life Lock?

I got a kick out of that too


but I like Experian...my credit rating is higher with them than the other two ;-)))

wow... I don't know how you pulled that off. :D Experian is always my lowest and they are a pain in the ass to deal with.

He's setting himself up to be the Titanic of identity protection. His unsinkable ship is about hit a huge iceburg and take everyone onboard down with him.

Seriously, who dares people to steal your identity and then help them out by displaying your actually SSN everywhere?

What a jackass.

I agree, what a smug dumbass. :1orglaugh

I see 'identify theft' like I see global warming, and anti-porn activists, and churches, etc etc. Just a big hoax. Has anyone here ever "suffered" from identify theft?

I lose my shit all the time, I've lost my wallet at least 5 times, probably more, and the worst that ever happened to me was someone ran up some online porn charges on one of my CC's. I called Visa and it was taken care of with one phone call, cost $0.

Sounds like a 'feel good' service without much to back it up.

What would make me lol is if in the end we all find out that the SSN he's been displaying was his ex-wifes or something.

That's hilarious....kinda figured this would happen.

I knew it was all bullocks !

Happened to me twice so I see no hoax or fake scare.

1st. one landed me an IRS audit and is how I found out. I paid my taxes like normal and all that happy horseshit. Found out I had unreported earnings for a job "I' had in New Mexico. I was like WTF? I have never lived in NM, never worked there, so seriously... Well apparently someone was working under my info.

2nd. one was a collection agency for a debt "I" had got at Circuit City in San Diego. Never been inside of such store there and hell I had not been down there for a period of years around the time of purchase.

I remember seeing some of those advertisements on a web hosting forum, I checked the company out and after reading the website I pretty much filed it away as bullshit. The best way to protect against this shit is to actively receive a copy of your credit report once a month and review anything that could potentially effect you negatively whether it is legitimate or illegitimate. What a tard, hope he gets fucked over.

This was bound to happen, only a matter of time. I wonder if he'll come out with new commercials stating that it's never good to give your SS # in a commercial LOL.

A. I hope this is true

B. Whoever did this is hilarious. I hope they charged something funny :)

i signed up for lifelock

i like it

My gf had plane tickets and stuff charged on to one of her cards. Discover was pretty good about removing the charges though.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh :1orglaugh:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

pretty amazed with it myself ;-)