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Archive for the ‘Identity Theft Protection’ Category

What Does LifeLock Do For You?

January 4th, 2012
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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.

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Why Do I Need Identity Theft Protection?

December 27th, 2011
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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

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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