Todd Davis, CEO of protection service against LifeLock identity theft, appeared on national television Today Show Friday to publicly address a handful of recent lawsuits against the company. Since we went on record stating LifeLock is the best overall value for identity theft protection, we thought we would take the opportunity to address three common criticisms we hear of LifeLock detractors through research and presentation of the facts to our readers.
Joint Review # 1 :. LifeLock charging consumers for services they can get for free
Some of identity theft protection tools that LifeLock uses are freely available to consumers. In particular, critics of LifeLock like to emphasize that everyone can set their own alerts of fraud or order their free annual credit report from the three major credit bureaus. There are two issues to address here.
First, while it is true that consumers can define their own fraud alerts, for example, it does not mean that it is a trivial process. We encourage all those who are not familiar with the process of establishing a fraud alert to read our fraud alert and credit freeze guide.
LifeLock is very clear about the specific services they provide and those that can be performed for free by consumers. The analogy that Davis used publicly in the past is that LifeLock is a service provider and no different than paying someone to change your oil instead of doing it yourself.
Second, these are not the only services that LifeLock provides its subscribers. LifeLock offers a number of features that help prevent and detect identity theft crimes and help victims recover. For example, the eRecon LifeLock service scours the Internet looking for abusive or criminal use of personal information of their subscribers such as credit card numbers. WalletLock, a LifeLock service that replaces all individuals of the documents such as credit cards, driver's license, Social Security card, credit cards and passport, is also available for all LifeLock subscribers.
It is clear that LifeLock does not provide many useful services that would not be available to consumers without cost in time and / or money. Ultimately, LifeLock provides a service for consumers who want the peace of mind that comes with having a team of experts to protect and, if necessary, to recover their identity for them.
Joint Review # 2 :. LifeLock can not be effective in identity theft protection because many subscribers, including the CEO, have been victims of identity theft
It is true that LifeLock subscribers, including the CEO of the company Todd Davis, have been victims of identity thieves. However, publicly available data shows that LifeLock subscribers are almost 400 times less likely to be victims of identity theft than non-subscribers.
In the interview with Matt Lauer of the Today Show, Davis reveals that 105 of the LifeLock subscribers have been victims of identity theft. This means that about 0.01% of LifeLock subscribers, or about one in 9.524 subscribers were victims. Now compare that with the recent statistics published by the Better Business Bureau, which found that 4%, or one in 25 American adults were victims of identity theft in 2006, the most recent statistics were available. Again, this means that LifeLock subscribers are almost 400 times less likely to be victims of identity thieves that the average American adult.
For Davis, a Texas man took out a payday loan of $ 500 on behalf of the Director General LifeLock using the social security number which is featured prominently in marketing campaigns the company. Since the payday loan company has executed a credit check on the loan application, the fraud alerts on Davis's credit report are not triggered and the transaction could not be avoided. To be clear, there is no identity theft protection service on the market today that would have prevented this incident of identity theft to occur. However, LifeLock recovery services have immediate effect and the identity of Davis was recovered without costing him any time or money.
Davis has publicly commented on the incident several times and was clear that there was no lasting impact on his identity or credit file as a result. "There's nothing on my actual credit report about uncollected funds, no outstanding tickets or warrants or anything," he said.
So it would be better if no subscriber LifeLock has never been of victim of identity theft, the reality is that no protection service against identity theft can be 100% effective. The aim of these services is to minimize the chance of identity theft as much as possible, and we would say minimizing your chances of being a victim 400 times is terribly effective. Furthermore, protection against identity theft is one facet of the company's service. LifeLock also offers a service guarantee of $ 1 million pays to retrieve the identity of a subscriber who is a victim while a member of LifeLock. We will approach the point of view of criticism of the guaranteed $ 1 million below.
Common Criticism # 3: ". $ 1 service guarantee Million" LifeLock is not worth the paper printed on its
$ 1 million guaranteeLifeLock is a direct contract between LifeLock subscribers and in which they agree to spend up to $ 1 million to recover the identity of a subscriber who is a victim of identity thieves. This does not mean that LifeLock wrote a check for $ 1 million to any subscriber whose identity is stolen. But this does not mean that LifeLock will provide victims with access to experts and professionals will work to recover the identity of the victim on dime LifeLock. The guarantee is easy to read and understand and is highlighted published on the website of LifeLock.
All 105 LifeLock subscribers who have been victims of identity theft to date, including Davis himself, were covered by the company's service guarantee. "What is important is the incident proves that LifeLock work, because I was never a penny of my own money or a minute of my time," said Davis. "LifeLock me and 104 other members protected exactly as they promised."
As always, we encourage consumers to develop their own opinion based off of handmade. You can view Today Show Davis interview below.
For more information on LifeLock or other identity theft protection services, visit our comparison and reviews of protection services against theft 'identity.