Credit protection

[Hanky]

Anyone use Lifelock or similar agency? Anyone know of anything better than Lifelock?
Thank you for your time
hank

[dbphotos]

We are going through an identity theft issue now and have Lifelock. So far they are doing a great job of handling everything for us. There is no service out there that can completely protect your information from being used, but it is what they do afterwards to fix it that is important.

Honestly, most of them do the same thing. The difference is their level of customer service and cost. So far we are happy with our Lifelock experience.

[Hanky]

Thank you very much!

[Steelsun]

As a security consultant & investigator, I used to do alot of ID theft work (prevention, training, etc).

As said above, no service is 100% foolproof. But Lifelock is OK, although they have had some problems (lots of lawsuits, their president's ID was stolen several times and abused, etc).

Check with your homeowner's insurance company, they may offer ID theft riders for you for a good price. Also your bank and credit card companies may offer it.

Whatever you do, don't use the ID theft insurance services sold by the credit reporting companies (Experian is a big one there that sells ID protection), as they are the biggest problem in the industry. The Credit Report companies make TONS of money selling your information (it's how those unsolicited credit card offers arrive in the mail for you), and it's like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

[SCone]

I use Identity Theft Shield protection offered thru Pre-Paid Legal Services. They offer a little different method of handling the problem.... monitoring, notification, & when needed, resolution. Everyone offers the monitoring service and most will notify you, but only Pre-Paid Legal offers full restoration of your good name... and they don't stop until you say it's resolved.

Check out www.c1associates.com... just click on the Identity Theft Shield link to find out more and to protect yourself & your spouse for less.

[dbphotos]

Originally Posted by SCone

I use Identity Theft Shield protection offered thru Pre-Paid Legal Services. They offer a little different method of handling the problem.... monitoring, notification, & when needed, resolution. Everyone offers the monitoring service and most will notify you, but only Pre-Paid Legal offers full restoration of your good name... and they don't stop until you say it's resolved.

Not completely accurate. Lifelock does all the work for you, after the fact, to restore your credit, including removing fraudulent accounts and inquiries. You are assigned one contact person that you work with and they have been very attentive.

Remember, there is one thing everyone can do to stop new credit lines from being added and that is to completely lock down your credit profile. It means you'll have to jump through whops if you want to get credit, but if you're not looking to get credit it will prevent anyone from obtainin credit through the use of your credit report.

Remember, that once they have your social security number they can come back in 5 years and start it all over again. Once they hit you, you have to be vigilant about having a service that watches your credit and you have to do it yourself. There is no one "best" service that does it all.

Just to show you how far it goes, right now we have our local police department serving subpoenas to various credit card companies, the FBI is now involved, the Philadelphia Police and a private agency retained by Lifelock. I am quite amazed at how many agencies actually spend any time trying to identify the people involved.

[carrbowl]

David, you are one of the lucky ones. I have had issues three times. One time they stole checks through the mail. Had the girl on video and did not prosecute....crazy as far as I'm concerned. Another time my wallet was stolen while out of town. In less than 5 hours they got $5,000. Nothing ever came of it. We have all of our credit information on alert for the last 10 years and that seems to be working. We did have lifelock for one year but didn't see that they really did anything for us personally.

[cassmartinez]

Originally Posted by SCone

I use Identity Theft Shield protection offered thru Pre-Paid Legal Services. They offer a little different method of handling the problem.... monitoring, notification, & when needed, resolution. Everyone offers the monitoring service and most will notify you, but only Pre-Paid Legal offers full restoration of your good name... and they don't stop until you say it's resolved.

Check out www.c1associates.com... just click on the Identity Theft Shield link to find out more and to protect yourself & your spouse for less.

I have just signed up for pre-paid legal too! It's a great price for all they offer...I'd pay that price just for The Identity Shield but you get so much more!

[SCone]

Sorry David, you'd better check the fine print... "...if you become a victim of identity theft while you are a LifeLock member because of some failure or defect in our service, contact us and we will act on your behalf to repair any damage."

Monitoring & notification is easy... anyone can do that, but what everyone is really after is someone to handle the problem WHEN it happens. With Identity Theft Shield, you are covered regardless of how the theft occurs or where it happens.

Check out the real information and then decide for yourself... do you want to be informed or protected?

[Steelsun]

Originally Posted by SCone

I use Identity Theft Shield protection offered thru Pre-Paid Legal Services. They offer a little different method of handling the problem.... monitoring, notification, & when needed, resolution. Everyone offers the monitoring service and most will notify you, but only Pre-Paid Legal offers full restoration of your good name... and they don't stop until you say it's resolved.

Check out editted out... just click on the Identity Theft Shield link to find out more and to protect yourself & your spouse for less.

Ethically, you should reveal that you get a commission on all referrals to PPL through that link.

[SCone]

The OP asked for information, I provided it. Now it's up to them to make an informed decision on how best to protect their good name. Even if I was only a member, I'd still recommend the service.

Following the link reveals all.....