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Archive for the ‘Identity Theft Protection’ Category

LifeLock Now Offers WalletLock

December 22nd, 2007
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Have you ever lost your wallet or had it stolen?

It's really a terrible feeling starting in the pit of your stomach and quickly spreading all through your body. Then panic sets in. Followed by anger.

Just the thought of the hours you'll spend canceling credit card accounts and replacing them gets your head pounding. It's another huge aggravation that you really don't need.

LifeLock has come up with the perfect solution to this problem by creating a new service called "WalletLock". It's available to all LifeLock customers – old and new. If your wallet is lost or stolen, WalletLock will provide the complete recovery services necessary to allow you to go on with your life and not spend hours on the phone.

LifeLock customers can make just one call to a LifeLock specialist to start the process to have all lost or stolen credit cards, drivers license, and other important items cancelled and replaced. If your wallet is lost or stolen, all you have to do is call 1-800-LifeLock. Their specialists will assist you with replacing all the document items in their wallet with the exception of the cash, money or pictures in your wallet.

Here's what they'll help you replace:

  • Credit/debit cards
  • ATM Cards
  • Drivers License
  • Social Security Card
  • Insurance Cards (Health, Auto, etc)
  • Professional Licenses
  • Passport
  • VISA
  • Immigration documents
  • Diplomas or Certificates
  • Your Checkbook
  • Travelers checks

LifeLock's complete service guarantee assures you'll never be left on your own if your identity is stolen. Now you get their outstanding help if you lose your wallet or purse. Peace of mind is priceless.

Get LifeLock Identity Theft Protection for only $9 a month or $99 annually.
Use the promo code '9' to get your discounted price.

Identity Theft Protection

LifeLock vs Credit Monitoring

November 20th, 2007
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Credit monitoring (or credit watch) has been around for a long time. In the past, it's been the only way to get alerted if you're a victim of identity theft. The three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, all sell their own versions of monitoring. Basically, what they're doing is selling your own information back to you.

If a company has a security  or data breach, you'll usually get a letter from them to tell you that your information is at risk and they give you a year's worth of credit monitoring. I know. I've had that happen. Monitoring may give you a false sense of security. Again, the bureaus do nothing to actually stop the crime before it happens and do nothing to help after you've been victimized. They only provide quick notification of a change, nothing more.

Credit monitoring will alert you AFTER someone opens an account in your name. You'll simply get an alert telling you about it. Then, well, you're on your own to get it straightened out. The Credit Bureaus do nothing to actually prevent the crime of identity theft, nor do they help fix the problem.

LifeLock has been designed to actually prevent identity theft. It represents the new generation in Identity protection. They have developed a plan that  gives you the best protection for the lowest cost. Their expertise and experience are invaluable. After you enroll with LifeLock's protection, credit monitoring doesn't provide any additional benefit. This helps them to keep their costs down.

No identity theft protection plan is infallable. So LifeLock offers a $1million total service guarantee. They will reimburse you for any money you lose because of the theft and will pay all costs associated with repairing the problem up to a million dollars.  If there is a dispute, LifeLock will hire qualified professionals to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to resolve the problem.

Peace of mind is the biggest benefit LifeLock offers. Knowing you'll never be on your own if your identity gets stolen is priceless.

Identity Theft Protection

Identity Theft Protection and Children

October 4th, 2007

A child's identity is one of the easiest to steal and not get caught. As a general rule, no one is checking their credit report because, well, they're kids – they don't have any credit. So you figure they're safe. Children need identity theft protection as much as their parents do.

If an identity thief gets a child's social security number and name, they can open accounts all over and not worry about being discovered anytime soon. You don't want your children to start off their adult lives with a bad credit rating. Many times, it's hard enough just to get good credit started without having any lingering effects from an identity theft.

A thief can get personal information from school records or doctor's offices. I just read an article about a couple who had a cleaning business in Sarasota, Florida who broke into the records of doctor's offices and used the information to open credit card accounts. They had quite a little operation going.

Think of how many places that have your children's personal information. Every one of those places is an opportunity for a thief to cash in. Not only can a thief use the information for his personal gain, he can also sell it to huge networks of thieves that operate all over the world.

Your child could also be on the receiving end of identity theft by a relative who has bad credit. It's much more common than you might think for a family member to use a child's information to get credit to buy a car or get a mortgage.

Lock up your children's identity and keep them safe.

Identity Theft Protection

What is Your Identity Worth to Thieves?

September 26th, 2007

Identity thieves don't just steal your personal information for only themselves to personally use. There's a bunch of well funded international criminals willing to pay good money for your personal information. Hackers can make money by figuring out your numbers and selling them. Quite a nasty litte work at home job.

Bank account numbers along with authentication codes are the most valuable commodities. They can easily bring from $30 to a whopping $400. The more money you have available in your account, the higher the asking price. They are the second most advertised numbers for sale on the underground black market.

Credit card numbers are the most popular items for sale. Even though they bring considerably less money than bank numbers, they are the easiest to steal. Their value is anywhere from $.50 to $5.

According to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report for the first six months of 2007, banking information and credit cards amounted to 43% of the information available for sale in the criminal community.

The next most valuable piece of info is your email password. It can bring from $1 – $150 depending on whether your account has been used for spamming previously. Email passwords allow access to an email account and are typically used for sending spam. They can also be used to recover a user’s passwords from various Web sites that will email password-reset information to the user’s email account.  Here's another kick – email accounts with usernames in standard English are generally higher priced. Kinda makes you want to change your name to "Qwerty".

Your full identity goes for $10 – $150. That includes name, DOB, address and social security number. Surprisingly, your social security number will fetch a paltry $5 – $7. They are more valuable when attached to the rest of your personal info.

How do the bad guys get your information to sell?

Bot infected computers are the most common way. They can be in your personal computer or in a company or organization. Bots can also be used by attackers to harvest confidential information from compromised computers, which can lead to identity theft. Furthermore, they can be used to distribute spam and phishing attacks, as well as spyware and adware. Between January 1and June 30, 2007, Symantec observed an average of 52,771 active bot-infected computers per day.

So what are you worth?

If your email address has been used for spam, your bank account has a negative balance and your credit cards are over limit, your info could be worth around $20. But that's still a lot of money for a thief in a third world country. They keep coming up with new ways of avoiding detection.

 

Identity Theft Protection

What an Identity Thief Can Do With Your Identity

August 29th, 2007

An identity thief can do lots of things after he gets your personal information. All he needs is your name, date of birth and social security number.

He could:

  • - Open a checking account
  • - Open a credit card account
  • - Get a job
  • - Get a cell phone and cell phone service
  • - Get medical benefits
  • - Get a car loan
  • - Rent an apartment or house
  • - Turn on utilities at that apartment including electric, cable, water, phone
  • - Get arrested on criminal charges and jump bail

When you become a victim, you'll probably never even realize a thief has used your identity to do any of this until bills get turned over to a collections agency or the police come knocking on your door to arrest you.

After this damage has been done, it's now up to you to undo it and prove it isn't really you who opened the accounts or owes back rent or medical bills.

To minimize the damage, you could monitor your credit report every few months to see if any new accounts have been opened that  you don't know about. You could possibly catch an identity thief in the act. Or he could be long gone by then. You'll be left with the lingering effects of bad credit and possibly a criminal record popping up when you least expect it.

The other thing you can do to protect yourself is to get a subscription from LifeLock. LifeLock is a company that offers Identity Theft Protection. The CEO, Todd Davis, advertises his social security number – 457-55-5462. They guarantee your identity will be protected and back it with a million dollar pledge.

Normally, LifeLock is $10 per month, but if you use this discount code – 9 – you'll the $9 per month special pricing. If you decide to take their annual plan, the price drops to $8.25 per month. You'll also get your first 30 days for free to try it out. Get LifeLock now.

 Remember, it's easier to prevent identity theft than it is to fix it.

 

Identity Theft Protection

Identity Theft Protection

August 7th, 2007

LifeLock is a company that offers identity theft protection. The CEO of LifeLock publishes his social security number every place he can – even prints it on the side of a big truck and drives it around NYC.

LifeLock protection guarantees your identity will remain safe. They give  you a $1million total service guarantee it will remain safe. If your identity gets stolen, they'll hire someone to help you and reimburse you for losses up to a million dollars.

You've heard all about identity theft on the news. Seems like there are huge security breaches all the time. Identity thieves love to steal identities any way they can get them. In the last year, they've been targeting large groups.

Here's a few examples… Thieves hacked into the datastream of TJ Maxx and got all credit card info on anyone who shopped there or at Marshalls in the past 6 months. Then there was the VA data breech where a laptop was stolen that contained the sensitive personal information on millions of veterans and active-duty troops. So far this year, three universities in Indiana universities, including Goshen College and Notre Dame and Purdue, have had some type of security breach affecting thousands of students.

Did you hear about the woman who stole an identity to get a job at Equifax?

Why would someone steal an identity to go to work at Equifax? This is just my best guess, but I'm thinking that woman wanted to hit the jackpot of personal information that's stored there. As a credit reporting agency, they have your name, date of birth, social security number, all credit accounts, all past addresses, all jobs – well, everything about you.

There's nothing you personally can do to keep a determined thief like that from stealing your identity.

Preventing identity theft from happening is by far easier than being alerted after it's been stolen. You can have a DIY identity theft protection plan in place. You'll need to remember to keep it updated every month.

Or, you can get protection from LifeLock. It's like that 'set it and forget it' commercial. They'll keep your identity locked up safe.

Use this promotion code – 9 – and get a discount. You also get the first 30 days FREE. Give it a try.

Click here to get LifeLock now – don't wait to be the next victim.

 

Identity Theft Protection