A company called Lifelock is running a bunch of commercials with an 800 number.
They claim that your identity will not be stolen and offer a $1,000,000 guarentee if it IS stolen and you’re their client.
The commercials are vague (except for the 800 number). They also advertise with Paul Harvey who does say their service is $10 a month.
I’m wary of vague commercials with 800 numbers. Has anyone tried them?
What do they do to earn their 120 bucks a year?
My first thought on reading this…
Paul Harvey is still alive???!?
I have never used them so I can not answer your question, but I have seen the commercials a bunch of times. What I have a hard time believing is the number that the guy claims is his SSN, and is showing to the world via the commercial, is his actual real SSN.
They contact the credit bureaus and do exactly what you can do for yourself.
They ‘opt out’ of preapproved offers for you. You can do this yourself for free.
They add fraud alert statements to your credit report. You can do this yourself for free.
No one with your SSN will get credit because the report will fail when there is an alert of file, and then you will be required to provide other identifying information (in general, it’ll be a pain to get credit). So the head honcho gives out his SSN. BIG DEAL. Your SSN is everywhere anyway. What he does is he has his minions review his report non-stop to ensure aint nothing wrong with it. So, making the SSN public is no big whoop.
I haven’t heard the commercials but I would bet that it’s more of an insurance type deal than anything. And I don’t think they guarantee you an instant $1million if your identity is stolen, it’s probably more like they’ll cover any losses you incure if your identity is stolen up to $1million.
I agree – no big whoop. But as advertising, it’s a brilliant move. There is a lot of paranoia associated with the SSN.
I work at a university that, until recently, used the SSN as the identifying number for students, faculty, and other staff. Anytime you filled out a form or used a university service, you’d have to reveal your SSN. There were people going absolutely nutso screaming batshit haywire over this. They were absolutely totally convinced that if anybody got so much as a glance at this magical secret number, their life would be wrecked beyond repair. I’d bet many of those people would gladly pay for Lifelock.
How do I do this, exactly?
1-888-5-OPT-OUT
One call does it with all three.
Note: most people get credit from pre-approved offers, including their credit cards and offers to switch to low % financing…or free financing…or a heads up about 0% on car financing, etc. Some people like being a customer (potential customer) that companies are bidding on, and again, most people get their credit card by perusing offers that were mailed to them.
Of course, some don’t.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/index.html
Concerned? … just visit the FTC site above.
Actually, no, it was just some dude who sounded like Harvey, then stole his identity after Paul died, (Paul is dead, by the way, I heard it on a Beatles album), and used his new ID to get a voice over job. Kinda ironic, isn’t it? 
I can absolutely understand that paranoia. Someone having your social security number, in addition to other information of course (which is almost always easier to obtain though), can wreak total havoc because of identity theft. People SHOULD guard their SSN to the best of their ability, and ANY school or company using SSN’s as student or employee ID numbers is lazy and risky. It’s just an unwarranted risk that should be avoided. The university I attend currently used to use SSN’s as student ID numbers and they would be printed on the student ID cards. :smack:
I could be being whooshed here…but he pulled a Sgt. Schultz?
If you want to read an expose on the company, http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-05-31/news/what-happened-in-vegas/
Set up by a scam artist. Etc.
Oh, I’m not saying that people shouldn’t take reasonable care to protect their SSNs. But there are other identity theft risks that are far more serious, and people are mostly oblivious to them (such as theft of mail from unsecured mailboxes). Many people believe that SSNs have an almost talismanic power but are unperturbed at receiving credit cards or blank checks in an unlocked mailbox that is left unattended most of the day.
I’ll admit that the on-going radio commercials piqued my interest, so thanks for this thread and your post in particular. 
6 page article, and they didn’t tell us whether or not that was his real SSN.
I actually know soneone who had lifelock and who got a call informing them of ID theft and it was all taken care of in a week. I think people care to much about the SSNs its something that can be used against you but to many people act like its a magical number
Thank you for that link, samclem. As soon as I saw the title, I headed for the New Times site to dig the article up. To summarize the six-page article:
[ul]
[li]In the early 90s the Feds shut down his credit-repair business for false advertising and deceptive practices.[/li][li]He loves to tell a story about being arrested because ‘somene’ stole his identity and ran up a big bill in Las Vegas. In reality, he was arrested for welshing on a $16,000 marker he himself had signed.[/li][li]AmEx is after $154,000 run up on a card in his father’s name, a card his father says he knows nothing about. The card’s bills were going to one of his business addresses, not his father.[/li][/ul] I wouldn’t trust this guy with a ten-dollar bill, much less pay him $120 a year for the privilege of disclosing to him my financial information.
It probably is, but so what? He’s probably got his employees checking every half-hour for hits on it. You think that’s true for regular subscribers?
New York Times ran a couple of pieces on LifeLock, and they buried them. Experian is suing them and the FTC is up their arse right now.
Google News: "lifelock’’ and read the articles.