# Best identity protection service **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 14, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602 "2017-08-14T02:24:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/1 "2017-08-14T02:24:02Z")
Which service is best? Is lifelock the best or just the best known? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/2 "2017-08-14T02:36:45Z")
I don’t think ANY of them are worth the money they charge. It costs you nothing to act sensibly & safe online, using good passwords, not clicking on unexpected email attachments, having good backups, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/3 "2017-08-14T02:42:58Z")
Ahh, LifeLock is not a good choice: [LifeLock agrees to pay $100 million for allegedly violating FTC order.](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/lifelock-agrees-pay-100-million-allegedly-violating-ftc-order) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/4 "2017-08-14T02:57:04Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > I don’t think ANY of them are worth the money they charge. > > It costs you nothing to act sensibly & safe online, using good passwords, not clicking on unexpected email attachments, having good backups, etc. How does any of that protect me if someone sets up a credit card in my name? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/5 "2017-08-14T04:24:09Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > How does any of that protect me if someone sets up a credit card in my name? How do any of the identity protection services protect you if that happens? Here’s the OP of an old thread of mine. It has pie: > [@LifeLock Doesn't Work (pure schadenfreude remix)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lifelock-doesnt-work-pure-schadenfreude-remix/450326/1): > > [The LifeLock guy’s SSN has been used to steal his identity multiple times](http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2008/05/23/suits_say_anti_id_theft_service_failed_even_its_founder/): > > > [@](#): > > > > Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver’s licenses at least 20 times using Davis’ Social Security number, though _ **some** _ of the applications may have been rejected because data in them didn’t match what the Social Security Administration had on file. > > Some is not all. Some is not even most.He played around and got burned. > > > [@](#): > > > > Davis acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his stunt has led to at least 87 instances in which people have tried to steal his identity, and one succeeded: a guy in Texas who duped an online payday loan operation last year into giving him $500 using Davis’ Social Security number. > > $500 is chump change but it goes to prove the point: LifeLock isn’t what it sets out to be. > > > [@](#): > > > > 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. > > Thus we see that LifeLock _cannot possibly do what it is claimed to do_. **The system LifeLock is built on isn’t that good.** > > Read the whole article. LifeLock does things you can do yourself for free, and it doesn’t do them any better than you could. > > [Here is some pie.](http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004492.html) Dark, bittersweet pie. With Kahlua and molasses. I bolded the main part: LifeLock is only as good as the system it works on top of, and relies on, and that system isn’t good enough to be perfect or close to it. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/6 "2017-08-14T04:57:26Z")
Credit Karma sends me a notification any time there’s a change to my credit data. Financed a new car. Got an email. Opened a credit line to buy furniture. Got an email. $38 balance that I didn’t know about sent to collections. Got an email. So if ever someone gets a credit card or something else in my name I’m probably going to hear about it quickly. I believe there’s also some way you can have the agencies flag your account to prevent someone opening accounts without jumping through extra hoops, but I’d have to look it up to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/7 "2017-08-14T15:02:12Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > LifeLock is only as good as the system it works on top of, and relies on, and that system isn’t good enough to be perfect or close to it. It’s so bad that their commercials no longer claim to protect anyone, it’s all about recovery now. 'Course, they never say how much they’ve spent on fixing their CEO’s problems. ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-identity-protection-service/793602/8 "2017-08-17T18:47:56Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > I believe there’s also some way you can have the agencies flag your account to prevent someone opening accounts without jumping through extra hoops, but I’d have to look it up to be sure. If you go to one of the credit bureau sites (Experian, Transunion, Equifax) and search for “fraud alert,” you can submit a form putting a flag on your credit report and giving you the ability to request a phone call before a new account is opened. One nice thing is that setting this Initial Fraud Alert (that’s what they call it) at any one of them propogates it to the other two. You have to renew it every 90 days, but it’s quick to do so. Another player in the field is Zander Insurance who offers to do the recovery \* for you. \* I make no representation on how good they actually are, but the idea of someone else doing that work for me is appealing.