Best way to protect against identity theft?
I’ve come across these two services, priced similarly, sound similar.
ID TheftSmart - The name sounds like they are a smart way to commit identity theft, but I suppose this is not what they mean.
Lifelock - Their tag line is “Guarantee your good name” and one of their gimmicks is that the CEO has published his SSN for all the world to see which is fairly daring and clever.
Do you know anything about the pros and cons of services like these, or the specifics of either or both of these?
Popularity: 4% [?]
October 31st, 2007 at 7:21 am
Be careful especially of the LifeLock product. They have a great advertising campaign with the $1 Million guarantee but it is all fluff. The service places a fraud alert on your credit bureau’s, which you can do for free, and renews them every 90 days. The other services that they offer are also “free consumer services” such as Do Not Call Lists and Do Not Mail Lists. The major problem with their plan is that the guarantee states that they will pay to restore your “good name” if your personal information is compromised through the “defect or fault” of their plan. This is very restrictive since if any kind of ID Theft occurs that was not fraud alerts related then there is no protection. For example, only 48% of ID Theft is credit related. Secondly, not all vendors that establish accounts run credit bureau reports before extending credit. Cell phone companies, utilities, even cash advance businesses may run a credit score to determine eligibility but not a credit bureau report. This makes the fraud alert ineffective thus rendering their services not applicable to many types of ID Theft. This doesn’t even address the other ID Theft risks such as insurance and benefit fraud (IRS and Social Security) Medical ID Theft, etc. In addition, it is over-priced…but well marketed. Look around for other plans that are more thorough and provide complete restoration for any type of event. Our company sells one but I am more intersted in just creating an awareness of the limits of these well hyped plans.
November 17th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Hi,
I had a strange woman call my husband saying that she was an old friend of mine. It made no sence to me and he gave her my current number and address. I immediately called the credit unions and put a fraud alert on my account. How many places should I call and does this last indefinitely or does it run out eventually.
Also, why wouldn’t everyone put a fraud alert on their accounts? It just makes it harder to quickly apply for a credit card when you are shopping but those are always a rip off anyway.
Martha