LifeLock Promo Code – 9

There are a number of ways you can help protect yourself from identity theft. Some work better than others. So I made a little comparison for you here to help out.

Doing it yourself is probably the most common way. That's because one of two things: you're in denial that identity theft can happen to you or that you think you're saving money by checking your free annual credit reports each year. Using this DIY method will only let you know you've become a victim long after the fact.

Credit card protection is another way you can choose. It comes from your credit card company. They will send you an alert if they notice suspicious activity. This is good, but it only monitors your credit card. This type of monitoring is for credit card fraud, not full-blown identity theft.

Credit monitoring is offered by the credit bureaus. They'll send you credit alerts for suspicious activity, monitor any address changes and send you your credit reports. Again, this is good because you have someone always looking out for you. But there are still more ways your identity can be stolen that they don't check for.

A LifeLock membership provides you with all the types of protection listed above and then keeps going. They will patrol over 10,000 criminal internet sites for illegal selling or trading of your information. LifeLock also gives you lost wallet protection which will help you to quickly change or replace your credit cards. And then there's what I like best about LifeLock – their $1 Million Total Service Guarantee. As a LifeLock member, if you become a victim of identity theft because of a failure in LifeLock®service, LifeLock will spend up to $1 million to hire experts to help your recovery.**(Restrictions apply. See www.lifelock.com for details.)

Knowing I have someone to help me every step of the way if my identity gets stolen is very important to me. I have been a LifeLock member now for almost 4 years. I can't imagine not having it. Every month, I get an email to let me know they've been watching out for me.

You get all this coverage with a LifeLock basic membership for only $9 a month or $99 a year when you use the LifeLock promo code "9".

Enroll today with your discount by clicking here.

**Due to New York state law restrictions, the LifeLock $1 Million Total Service Guarantee cannot be offered to residents of New York.

Identity Theft Protection Identity Theft Protection, lifelock, LifeLock promo code

Ten years ago, I never gave identity theft a second thought. Heck, I never really even knew what it was. But in the past decade, I've switched to mainly electronic banking, bill pay and credit card use. Shopping on the internet is one of my favorite things to do!

I try my best to be very careful about how I go about all this financial electronic transactions. For instance, I don't use my debit card when shopping online. That's probably one of the riskier things to do because it taps directly into your bank account. You don't get the same protections as you would with a credit card.

I also have made strong passwords for each financial site. Whatever you do, don't use your dog's or cat's name and then make it a default password for everything. An easy way to make a strong password is to think of a line from a favorite song and use the first letter of each word. Like this: "And she's climbing the stairway to heaven" would be "Asctsth'. Then tack on a few numbers you like before and after. Easy to remember, not so easy to guess.

No matter how careful I am though, there's always someone smarter than me, or you, or even the IT pros who create secure websites. Almost any site can be hacked and mined for your financial persona. So having an identity theft protection membership gives me some peace of mind to know that I'll have experts to turn to for help if I ever need them.

I use LifeLock because they will take charge of helping me work my way through an identity theft 'happening'. I also like the way I get monthly emails from them that let me know they've been watching for my personal information being used by someone other than myself. A LifeLock promo code will save you some money on your membership and get you off to a good start for the new year1

Identity Theft Protection Identity Theft Protection, LifeLock promo code, secure password

How many of us travel these days with our laptops, tablets and smart phones? It's hard for us to leave home without taking our internet with us. We've all become used to being connected.

Unfortunately, traveling and using public wi-fi can put you at a higher risk for identity theft. Sometimes just simply by losing our electronics at airports. Other times it happens by getting hacked through the unsecured wi-fi networks you connect to while away from home.

Before leaving home, be sure you have the latest update for anti-virus software. Typing in passwords or credit card numbers on an unsecured wireless network is a bad idea because hackers lurk in busy places like spiders in a web just waiting for their next meal.

Do you use a bluetooth device on your smartphone? Turn the connection off on your phone when not using it because thieves can sync up with your phone and steal files. Many times the bluetooth connection is turned to "ON" by default even if you've never used it.

Clear your wallet of all those extra credit cards – just carry two with you. Definitely leave your debit card at home. It doesn't have the protection that a credit card has. Also, leave your social security card at home. There's no reason for you to ever carry it with you.

When traveling out of the country, protect your passport with some type of carrier that can block RFID technology. As crazy as it sounds, just a layer of aluminum foil will do the trick although you can purchase fancier ones, too! The new US passport cards come in a sleeve that has this protection built in.

Having a membership with LifeLock before you travel can give you some peace of mind if someone does steal your identity. Their WalletLock feature can save you time and stress if you lose your wallet or bag while away from home. You can get a discount on your membership by using a LifeLock promotion code.

Blog

Inc. magazine publishes an Annual Inc. 500 list every year. They ranked LifeLock as #8 in 2010 on their list of the US's fastest growing private companies. And even better, LifeLock has been recognized as the #1 in the Inc. 500's Security category.

The growth required from LifeLock to receive this status is a result of the confidence that its current members and potential members have in LifeLock to relentlessly help protect them from identity theft.

Blog

No one is immune to identity theft. Rich – poor – famous – ordinary. We all are vulnerable to having our personal information stolen at any time no matter how much care we take to safeguard ourselves.

One of the ways that we are the most exposed is from data or security breaches. In so many instances, we've given our DOB and SSN along with address, spouse, children, insurance cards and more. Identity thieves know this and have made a point to target databases that contain large numbers of people.

Watching a trend from the PrivacyRights.org database of breaches, educational institutions, hospitals, insurance companies, banks and government agencies are tops on the list of security breaches. Many times its from something as careless as a laptop being taken home and just left sitting in the open. Other times, there's an insider employee who creates the leak. Or it can just simply be by throwing files in a dumpster.

One of the kickers is that the breach isn't even noticed right away.

Once your personal information is in the hands of criminals, it's going to sold and resold over and over again. You'll never know if or when you'll be attacked next.

I've personally had my identity stolen in 2002 and didn't even know it until I applied for a new mortgage in 2003. Up until then, no one talked much about fraud alerts, checking your credit reports or looking for your information being sold online. It didn't matter that my credit score was tanked by someone else – banks just looked at the score and turned me down or offered a loan with a higher interest rate.

When identity theft protection companies like LifeLock were created, I jumped on that boat right away.  I know this sounds like a cliche, but knowing I have someone watching out for me really does give me peace of mind.

Blog identity theft, Identity Theft Protection, lifelock, security breach

Reader's Digest Association (RDA) has partnered with LifeLock Identity Theft Services to help safeguard their reader's identities.

RDA has long been known for high quality educational content. They have chosen LifeLock to help their readers learn more about identity theft and ways to protect their personal information.

The dangers of identity theft are increasing as more and more tech savvy criminals continue to invent new ways to steal information from us – physically and electronically.

There are many things we can do to protect ourselves and the first step is to be aware of how to start. Our personal information is required in many places and transactions now. We all need to stay at least a step or two ahead of the crooks who are getting bolder and more inventive all the time.

LifeLock is the industry leader in identity theft protection. They work to proactively help you protect your personal information even if it falls into the wrong hands.

Blog

Congratulations all Facebook users! The amount your identity is worth has now doubled since we last wrote Your Identity Is Worth About 40 Bucks.

VeriSign's ID Defense unit has found an underground hacker forum offering Facebook accounts for around $25 each if you have 10 contacts or less. But if you've got more than 10 'friends', your account value jumps to about $45.

Ok, all kidding aside, that is a very serious situation because over 700,000 accounts have been sold. and 1.5 million are on the market. FB has admitted the hacked accounts are being used in many schemes including money transfer scams. Facebook just isn't very secure and all the activities we like to do on it make us more vulnerable. Even if you're very careful, a careless friend can accidentally expose your info.

Here are five dangers lurking on FB according to Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO Online.

1. Your information is being shared with third parties
2. Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign
3. Facebook ads may contain malware
4. Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable
5. Scammers are creating fake profiles

The US government run Internet Crime Complaint Center says in 2009, 336,655 complaints were received and that year's dollar loss was $559,700,000. That's over 559 million dollars. That's a lot and the amount more than doubled from 2008's loss of $264.6 million.

Identity theft protection has never been more important than it is in today's electronic, ultra-connected world. Whether you choose to DIY and place your free fraud alerts or become a member of LifeLock, do it now before you have a problem.

Blog

WalletLock is a service offered by LifeLock that takes the time, panic and hassle out of a lost or stolen wallet. It comes included in your membership.

This is one of those really good ideas someone had that's actually available to us!

Imagine looking for your wallet or purse and it's no where to be found. You don't know if you lost it or if someone stole it. It's full of your personal information: driver's license, credit card, debit card, health insurance card, student id card, passport card, social security card, check book… Well, you get the picture – and it's a total disaster.

The good folks at LifeLock came up with a great solution that makes it a lot easier to deal with this mess. The solution is WalletLock.

The first thing you need to do right now is to download the WalletLock pdf file and fill it out. It's a record of the things you carry in your wallet including account numbers.

Put this form in a separate, safe place – like NOT in your wallet or purse.

If your wallet is stolen, call LifeLock at 1-800-LIFELOCK (543-3562) and tell them what happened and have your WalletLock sheet that you filled out handy. A certified Recovery Specialist will help you:

• Contact each credit card company while you're on the phone
• Cancel the lost cards, licenses and documents
• Fill out the paperwork to request replacements
• Start a fraud affidavit and police reports

There's nothing quite like having a calm expert to hold your hand while you go through this. Now go have a cup of tea and relax.

Blog lost wallet, stolen wallet, WalletLock

We've reported before on what your identity is worth to a thief. The going rate seems to be about $40. That's forty lousy bucks to someone who sells them wholesale. How much time is it going to cost you to repair it?

We're not even going to mention the emotional costs… or the hidden cost of ruined credit.

That $40 was what identity thieves recently got for the names, SSN and DOB for 16 employees at Logan International Airport in Boston. The information was stolen by an employee who worked there. She then gave it to her aunt and uncle. What a nice family they must be.

No matter what you do or how careful you are to protect yourself, you can still become a victim of identity theft through no fault of your own. Your information is in databases all around the country in some form or another. Just think of everywhere you've ever had to fill out forms that asked for your social security number and date of birth.

The best way to protect yourself in the 21st century is to use an identity theft protection company to help keep you safe. There's no way you can absolutely protect yourself and no company can do it, either. But in today's electronic world, you need someone to watch your credit files and personal information and give you an early alert whenever your identity is used fraudulently.

Blog identity theft

There's no shortage of security and data breaches happening. PrivacyRights.org reports on them and it's just plain scary on how our personal information can land in an identity thief's hands.

Here's a report from their website from January 30, 2010 on a breach that happened recently:

A man had a job at Ameriquest Mortgage Company for about 6 weeks. He was a mortgage associate and helped people get loans. He managed to get himself paid pretty well for those six weeks of work: he stole the identities of almost 100 people by using the personal info from mortgage applications.

This guy was able to make off with more than $150,000 from at least 8 banks. He created fraudulent ID's and checks with the stolen information. Then he got cash and services as well as going on a spending spree buying things.

With one of the victim's info, he got a credit card through a bank in the United States. Using that card, he withdrew $30,529.63 in cash from ATM machines scattered through Minnesota.

How long do you think it's going to take to clear the name of the poor soul who had the 30 grand stolen? I'd sure hate to be in his shoes. I'd be willing to be that thief had himself a pretty big TV for the Superbowl game.

Blog identity theft, security breach