Around here, at least, there have been numerous commercials both on TV and radio for a product called LifeLock. LifeLock is supposed to help prevent identity theft and pay you if it fails. The commercials include the founder/owner guy giving out his social security number as measure of his confidence in his program. The TV commercials also include the claim that the service will help end junk mail and unsolicited credit card offers. One woman on the commercial then says, and I paraphrase, “it’s worth the price even if it just stops the junk mail.” I think I’ve written about it before (but I can’t seem to find the post), but the ending of junk mail, at least the credit card offers, is free. Well I’ve just learned through Overlawyered that class action lawsuits against LifeLock are firing up.
Per the Oakland Tribune, the founder’s identity isn’t as safe as he likes to make it seem.:
Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.
Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn’t work as promised and he knew it wouldn’t, because the service had failed even him.
[Attorney] Paris noted that LifeLock charges $10 a month to set fraud alerts with credit bureaus, even though consumers can do it themselves for free.
But Davis stands by his company and his advertising gimmick, which has appeared in newspapers and on billboards, radio and MTV. He even broadcasts it by bullhorn on walking tours through crowded downtowns.
It’s not just TV, it’s MTV.
The lawsuits, for which Paris is seeking class-action status, highlight the fundamental limits on how much security identity-theft companies can provide.Companies like LifeLock can help guard against only certain types of financial fraud by helping consumers set up alerts with credit bureaus, which inform them when someone tries to open a new line of credit or boost their credit limit to finance a buying binge, for example.
The services don’t guard against many types of identity theft such as use of a stolen Social Security number on a job application. [sic] or for medical services, or even the instance of an arrestee giving police a stolen Social Security number to shield his own identity.
LifeLock is also being sued in Arizona over its $1 million service guarantee, which the plaintiffs claim is misleading because it only covers a defect in LifeLock’s service, and in California by the Experian credit bureau. Experian accuses LifeLock of deceiving consumers about the breadth of its protection and abusing the system for attaching fraud alerts to credit reports.
