Excellent Source - Your Identity News

My friend, John Public runs a site called Your Identity News which is an excellent resource for Identity Theft and Privacy News. I recommend it.

Honestly, a lot of what I post here, comes from there.

Lifelock fined $12 Million for Deceptive Advertising

UPDATE 12.14.13
(the article is older I just added to my blog on 12.14.13 and previous posts are below)
This is too relevant not to share:

"LifeLock's Fraud-Alert Service Banned Forever in Settlement With Experian"
LifeLock, the ethics-bending, Tempe-based firm covered in two 2007 New Times feature articles, has been permanently banned from performing what used to be its most basic service.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2009/10/lifelocks_fraud-alert_service.php

The link to "permanently banned" takes you to this article by Patrick O'Grady
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/10/19/daily66.html

But here is an excerpt just in case "LifeLock Inc. and Experian Information Solutions Inc. have settled their lawsuit, and the agreement permanently blocks the original process LifeLock used to protect its clients."

ORIGINAL POST PRIOR TO 12.14.13
I'm adding my first LifeLock post from Jan. 14, 2009 to the bottom of this one to keep all the info in one place.

I think this newspaper has written about Lifelock before. I even called a reporter once who did a story on them because, well, it was incredible that Phoenix/Arizona knew so much dirt about this company but that they were still advertising on TV and the Web so heavily, but here is another news item that should give anyone pause who may be a customer of Lifelock.

Some of the highlights of the several page article include fines from the FTC for False Advertising, the criminal history of the founder, and several examples of how Life Lock failed to prevent the Identity Theft of CEO Todd Davis:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-05-13/news/cracking-life-lock-even-after-a-12-million-penalty-for-deceptive-advertising-the-tempe-company-can-t-be-honest-about-its-identity-theft-protection-service/

In the interest of keeping all the Lifelock info on one post, here is another related article that has some good quotes, such as:

LifeLock did nothing to protect against or monitor misuse of existing financial accounts --- by far the biggest source of online identity theft.

...the FTC and states AGs may in fact have taken all of LifeLock’s cash on hand to settle the suit...

http://www.cdt.org/blogs/ftc-drops-hammer-lifelocks-false-promises

ADDED 12.14.13 this link to the FTC Press Release
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2010/03/lifelock-will-pay-12-million-settle-charges-ftc-35-states

Which includes this great quote "“While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz."

Lifelock Issues (from earlier post Jan 14, 2009)
Here is citation for much of what I've heard about Lifelock, it is a good summary of what I've heard and read in my own research:

http://www.bloggernews.net/115050
In the most recent class action, it alleges that Lifelock doesn’t protect it’s customers from all forms of identity theft. It also alleges that putting repetitive alerts on a credit report might hurt a person’s ability to get credit. Last but not least it alleges that Todd Davis — the CEO of Lifelock who plasters his own social security number all over the place as a marketing tool — has himself been an identity theft victim several times."

"more than 100 people were using the same Social Security number"

This article is a great discussion of the issue of Social Security Identity Theft and how it can tie into Financial and Character/Criminal ID theft, in multiple states and countries and why an attorney may be very useful:

Identity theft opens door to woes

South Florida teens among latest victims

The investigation began in 2007, when detectives discovered that more than 100 people were using the same Social Security number as a fugitive they were tracking. The number actually belonged to the Chicago teen. Ultimately, 27 workers across Florida were convicted in the case.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/fl-identity-theft-20100509,0,4948712.story?page=1

Change your Facebook Password

You should probably change your facebook password now if you haven't already done so because of this (apparently I posted this to my Facebook site but not this blog back on Apr 26) :

Kirllos is offering the user names and passwords of 1.5 million Facebook users for between $35 and $62.70 per 1000

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/connect/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501833&objectid=10640757