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LifeLock CEO Todd Davis Had His ID Stolen

You’ve seen the ads on television. This guy has his social security plastered on the side of a big truck and challenges anyone to try and steal his ID. You see this guy, CEO Todd Davis, is using LifeLock and he claims he is totally protected. What Todd doesn’t mention is that a guy in Texas cracked Todds ID and made off with $500 after using his social security number.

But now people from Maryland, New Jersy and West Virginia are claiming that LifeLock does not provide the protection claimed by the company. In a AP report it states:

Paris said the fact Davis’ records were compromised at all supports the claim that Tempe, Ariz.-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.

Davis said it’s possible driver’s licenses have been issued to other people in his name because of the widespread availability of his personal information — and because of what he described as the flimsy mechanisms in place to report that kind of fraud.

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

Unfortunately this appears to be another of those gimmicks that promises a lot but doesn’t deliver. Anyone used LifeLock?

What’s your opinion?

Comments welcome

Source.

19 Comments

Well it looks like I will not be renewing my lifelock contract.

Does anyone know of a good reasonable price identity protection service? I don’t particularly care for experian because they nickel and dime you with add-ons services.

Any ideas?

Not to brag or anything but Pre Paid Legal and Kroll Background America have a product that offers true Identity restoration services. One of my clients had someone steal her identity and rack up $16,000 on a providian visa. She was notified when it occured but never checked her email (she’s kinda old) and didn’t find out until she got the collection letter in the mail. So she called Kroll and they had her sign a limited power of attorney and they restored her ID back to where it was before it was stolen. Feel free to visit the link and ask any questions you like. I haven’t found a ID theft product yet that covers all five areas of ID Theft and gives restoration services for pennies a day. http://www.prepaidlegal.com/idtheft/michaelhenry70

Mike Henry

Theres no replacing common sense and personal care with a $10 service. Controlling your personal information and taking care to maintain such things as saving separate from checking are the best ways to protect yourself.

Zeniunm - try DIY. ;) Most banks have zero liability policies. As do most major credit cards these days. Monitor your accounts closely and you won’t be thieved.

i don’t know if i have my head in the sand or something but i just can’t warm up to all the broohaha about identity theft. i know it’s a serious problem (a friend of mine worked for a collection agency for a while and told me some hair-raising stories) but i just can’t help suspecting that so much of this is about fearmongering. and i have a bone-deep aversion against that.

btw, would love to right a guest post for you. for a taste of what i might have to offer, go here - and yes, i am capable of writing in capital letters :)

Just goes to prove you can’t trust what cha’ see on tv…

The irony here is amazing, yet not surprising.

@Ron, i’d be happy to give the guest blogger thing a shot. Shoot me an e-mail.

Been writing for about 3 years now.

Just freeze your credit with the bureau’s directly:
http://clarkhoward.com/topics/credit_freeze_states.html

Raymond Larabee Jr

May 23rd, 2008
at 12:17am

Like the article says. You can do all of this fraud alert stuff yourself. It’s not that hard.

Thanks to everyone who has posted a comment on this subject. As always you have all provided valuable information, some of which I will share with all of my readers.

Best Regards, Ron

Like the article said. DIY.

Wow. This article was obviously written by someone that doesn’t have the facts. First, Davis wasn’t held liable for the $500 dollar loan; LifeLock covered it as they advertise. Also the loan was opened because payday loan places don’t usually perform credit checks which in turn wouldn’t prompt the fraud alerts. Finally, if you actually read about LifeLock they do provide services that people cannot do for themselves and the ones you can do they perform as a convenience. You always change your own oil and cut your own hair? Seriously, if you want to write articles have the facts.

Hello checkdafact,
Thanks for sharing your opinion. It is appreciated.

The Seasoned Hacker

January 16th, 2009
at 5:34am

Todd Davis was very stupid. As an ex computer Hacker/Social Engineer, when I saw this commercial for the first time I jumped on it. I first found Todd’s location then called his phone company and posed as a technician and conned them into giving me his birth date, at that point I had just about enough to do anything I wanted. I set up a few things in Todd’s name that I’ll keep private for now. The final outcome was me calling Todd Davis at his house and needless to say he sounded slightly nervous, I explained to him that the commercial as well as the service was a joke. Todd decided to tell me that this service was to protect people from every day bad guys not seasoned hackers such as myself. ?. I’m not sure what that meant but I gather it means that LifeLock will protect you from people who don’t know what they are doing but really can’t help you against as Todd says “Seasoned Hackers” . Stupid me, I thought “Seasoned Hackers ” were the ones who do this type of thing. So in short, I guess LifeLock will protect you against people who probably wouldn’t be able to harm you anyway but if a “Seasoned Hacker” decides to go after you they can’t do much. It’s a shame that the very company who say they will protect you against scams are the ones doing the scamming. Kinda like Garry Coleman having your back in a fight. Well here’s to you Todd Davis & thanks for the new computer.

Sincerely, The “Seasoned Hacker”

OH WOW THAT IS BRILLIANT! Hey, kudos to you, man. By the way, were you the one that charged him the $500?

I’ve been suspecting LifeLock was a sham but you know it’s bad when they say “Well basically we only offer protection against people who don’t know what they’re doing - the kind of people who are likely to mess up so badly you shouldn’t need any protection to be safe from them anyway.”

I will say this on Todd Davis’s behalf, it takes REAL BALLS to do something like what he did. Too bad in his case it was mostly stupid.

Hey GJ and enjoy that new computer. You and he, you two both deserve that for what you’ve done.

This is hilarious to me. I know the article is a little dated, but I saw the commercial this morning (I guess they decided to start playing them again) and I wanted to see if this story was true.
I mean, I’m sorry the guy had to go through that, but maybe that’s what you get for being stupid and putting your ssn on the side of a truck and supporting a company who isn’t all they say they are.

Well, I’m not planning on going with Lifelock. I was just interested to see if it was his real ssn. I was not aware of the 500 dollar payday loan either. Furthermore, I found the comment on Seasoned Hackers one of polite humor.

Zenium,

I left lifelock and used Opt Out Detectives. It’s only 40.00 one time fee and is backed by police officers.

After reading some of the post’s I checked out the opt out detectives website and blog. Check out this article I found: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/OptOutDetectives/blog/2009/07/24/Todd-Davis-from-Lifelock-Not-So-Protected-To-much-info-on-public-data-bases-Opting-out-would-ha

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