Tag: Identity Theft

FTC Strikes Against ID Theft Protection “Guarantee”

The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with LifeLock for misleading claims about its Identity Theft Protection services.

The Federal Trade Commission, in its advancing campaign against scams and misleading marketing with regards to credit reporting, credit scores and Identity Theft Protection, recently announced it had coordinated a settlement with LifeLock for misleading claims about its Identity Theft Protection services.

“While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

LifeLock agreed to pay $12 Million to settle charges by the FTC and 35 States that Identity Theft Prevention and data security claims were false.

“This agreement effectively prevents LifeLock from misrepresenting that its services offer absolute prevention against identity theft because there is unfortunately no foolproof way to avoid ID theft,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. “Consumers can take definitive steps to minimize the chances of having their personal information stolen, and this settlement will help them make more informed decisions about whether to enroll in ID theft protection services.”

More information about the settelment and about LifeLock’s false claims on the Federal Trade Commission website.

Protect Yourself from Identity Theft: FREE

Why pay the Credit Agencies for Identity Theft Protection? You can do it yourself for FREE thanks to free information from Uncle Sam.

Those television commercials will scare you into paying for some kind of ID Theft protection from one (or all, depending on your level of paranoia) of the three major credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Trans-Union, Equifax). Since Congress unfettered these agencies from the constraints of selling credit products to the consuming-public, ID Theft protection and credit score watch (allegedly to make your credit history better) are the hot products that consumers fork over cash money for each month in the form of “ID Theft” prevention monitoring and whatnot. Usually the fees are in the range of $10-15 a month, but they can be higher, $25-40 depending on the level of monitoring the consumer desires.

The problem I have with all these services is that the savvy consumer, by spending just a little time each year (and almost NO money) can pretty much get the same level of protection without subscribing to anything nor sending money to the credit bureaus.

Here’s a link to the Federal Trade Commission website that has a wonderful pdf brochure on all you need to know about Identity Theft and how to protect yourself against ID Theft. It’s FREE and it’s here: FTC: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft

Take some time to read the information, then set yourself on the path to protecting your Identity FREE of CHARGE.

I welcome Comments for all my blog entries. I will be happy to review and approve all legitimate comments provided by readers of tcurranmortgage.com. I do not permit unfettered access to comments for obvious reasons: mortgage spammers and their ilk. If you wish to Comment on any entry, please do so and I will quickly review and approve. Thanks for reading tcurranmortgage.com. Hope that helps!