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LifeLock Spokesperson's Stolen ID Inspires Lawsuits
Posted by
timothy
on Thu May 22, 2008 01:34 PM
from the now-he-is-a-formless-protoplasmic-blob dept.
from the now-he-is-a-formless-protoplasmic-blob dept.
OrochimaruVoldemort writes "It seems as though LifeLock isn't as secure as Todd Davis makes it out. According to a LifeLock spokesman, his identity has been stolen. For two years, Davis has been daring hackers to steal his ID. Looks like he got what he wanted. CNN reports: '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.'"
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Isn't this old news? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Isn't this old news? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
The news is... (Score:5, Informative)
- Atty David Paris is seeking class action lawsuit against founder Todd Davis in MD, NJ and WV for
- Also being sued in AZ over the 1 million dollar "service guarantee" because it is being misrepresented and only covers "defects in lifelock's service" and not actual identity theft. which they are misrepresenting.
- Experian is accusing LifeLock of deceiving customers about their breadth of service because all they do is put a fraud watch on your credit record every 90 days which is something anyone can do with the agencies for free themselves. The only thing this protects you from is credit fraud which where an initial credit check is performed -- and incidentally means if you actually want a change in credit, a cell phone, car, etc you have to contact the credit agency ahead of time so they will allow it.
--David
Parent
Re:The news is... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, then, he doesn't have to worry, then, huh? Because they'll be suing the thieves! Right? Right?
Parent
Re:The news is... (Score:4, Interesting)
The best protection is freezing your credit. That way, no one can check your credit or add new lines of credit. If you want to do anything involving your credit (open a new credit card, get a loan, get a background check), you would then need to unfreeze your credit and refreeze it when the activity was completed. Unfortunately, this costs $5 per action per agency per person. So if a husband and wife want to freeze their credit, it is $5 * 3 (credit agencies) * 2 (people), or $30. If they then want to unfreeze their credit, get a car load, and then refreeze their credit, it would cost $60.
There was a bill awhile back that would have made this free, but the credit industry lobbyists got it killed. After all, if you freeze your credit then you can't sign up for a new credit card at the checkout line of a store to get 10% off your purchase. And that means that you are less likely to have lots of credit card debt interest to pay off. And that means less profits for them.
As far as ID theft is concerned, they honestly don't care. If your identity gets stolen, it's your problem. You need to spend the time and money to prove to them that something went wrong. Any losses due to cards issued during ID theft are written off (or sent to a collection agency to hassle the ID theft victim and further negatively impact their credit rating).
Todd Davis is just lucky that he wasn't a victim of Criminal Identity Theft [blogspot.com].
Parent
Re:The news is... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:The news is... (Score:4, Informative)
I've actually done this. None of it costs so much as a dime. LifeLock and the like are complete rip-offs.
Parent
Re:Thanks. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:The news is... (Score:4, Funny)
Send me $10 and I'll tell you about the free ones.
Parent
Re:The news is... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:The news is... still somewhat of an old story.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
billionaires for tort reform! (Score:5, Insightful)
I understand where you are coming from, and I agree, but torts are way down on the list of court reform issues that need to be addressed. Federal, State, and local Attorney's offices are the worst offender here, with large companies being a close second. Our criminal justice system is basically a plea bargain system now, it's so gamed and rigged by the DA's that any notion of a person accused of a crime having a 'fair day in court' is reserved only for the very rich who can afford $50,000+ lawyers. The RIAA, MPAA with their frivolous lawsuits are just as bad.
The common thread here is that the courts have become another way to abuse everyday citizens in our country for political and financial gain, or even worse, for Public Relations.
To the lawsuits mentioned in this story, I think the litigants in this lawsuit deserve their day in court. Part of me is glad his identity was stolen. Anyone who knows about how identity theft works (even at a cursory level), knows that the services this guy was pedaling were complete vaporware. His company was taking advantage of a climate of fear and he inadvisably believed his own hype. Granted, courts do get it very wrong sometimes, and we always need to make sure we provide ways to rectify those situations, but I do not think this case is in that territory.
It is wrong to mislead people using their irrational fears and ignorance. Yes. It is wrong. Alot of people in our society seem to think that it's ok to do this...that's what I think needs reform!
Parent
Re:The news is... still somewhat of an old story.. (Score:4, Informative)
This looks like a silly lawsuit to me, and there certainly are silly lawsuits. But "tort reform" as pushed by Bush and his cronies is not necessarily the answer. In Texas, thanks to tort reform, a physician could literally operate on you totally stoned and maim you for life, and the damages you can recover are so severely capped that it wouldn't be worth it to sue him (meaning it will be hard to get a lawyer to take the case if you can't pay hourly). That's not a bug. That's a feature.
The intended effect of tort reform is to place a controlled value on the variables. Mr. Executive says, "If we do this evil thing [sell a dangerous vehicle or drug, for example], how much money will we make?" Bean counter says, "We will make $300 million and it will maim and/or kill a bunch of people." "How much will the law suits cost us?" Without tort reform, the bean counter has to answer, "I don't know. Juries are unpredictable." But with nice, tidy hard-capped damages, he can answer something like, "Our maximum exposure will be $150 million." "Great! Let's do it!" And we're off.
And lest you think I'm just a bitter litigator who had his livelihood yanked out from under him, I'm not. I am a patent attorney. I don't do personal injury. I hate torts. I've just seen the statutes that were spoon fed to the Texas legislature by the insurance lobby. Tort reform is not your friend if you are not a tortfeasor.
Parent
Re:The news is... still somewhat of an old story.. (Score:4, Insightful)
So if a clerk fails to check ID or doesn't run the credit report, their service worked and it was a failure outside it. But supposedly, they contest it for you and all you have to do is tell them about it.
The CEO even claims the Texas incident is proof life lock works because the clerk failed to verify the guys identity and the service took care of everything for him. He wasn't out a dime more then the cost of the service and didn't waist any time with the incident.
Second, It says it stops you from being a "victim of identity theft". That could be interpreted in many ways. Is a victim someone who has had someone else attempt to use their personal information or is a victim someone who has had to pay fees and spend endless hours as well as being denied a loan for something else because someone used their personal information. It is sort of like if someone attacks you and punches you. You would/might be a victim unless you signed up for a cage match or knowingly stepped in a boxing ring as an opponent of someone skilled in that art. You would/might be a victim if you were minding your own business, you probably wouldn't be one if you punched the other guy first. So there is some interpretation going on here.
From the adds, I agree with you. But after reading their website lifelock.com , I'm not sure if that really is the case. I think it will be interesting to see what the courts determine.
Parent
I figured that happened. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I saw an ad about a week ago. Don't remember the channel.
TWO FREAKING YEARS (Score:4, Insightful)
And that person got it from a payday check cashing place at that.
Not exactly a reputable type of business in general.
I'd say his service works pretty well based upon that track record.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Um, actually... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:TWO FREAKING YEARS (Score:5, Informative)
(Note: a FA is different from "freezing" your CR, which prevents it from even being pulled at all by potential creditors. A freeze is a one-time fee ($10 I think) and is an even better protection against ID theft than a perpetual FA. The downside is you have to pay that $10 per bureau and it can be a pain in the ass if you ever to legitimately apply for credit.)
Parent
Duh. Just Duh. (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's keep this in perspective... (Score:4, Interesting)
"he knew it wouldn't"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't the fact that he got his identity stolen due to use of the system more or less hard proof that he didn't know it wouldn't work?
Re:"he knew it wouldn't"? (Score:4, Insightful)
But he made commercials promising it would work AFTER it had failed.
Parent
Identity? (Score:4, Funny)
"Identify theft" needs a new name (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Identify theft" needs a new name (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
In other news ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Although you do have to be a bit of chump to pay $10 per month to lock your credit, the value is that the company will do all the work if your identity does get stolen. So unless the company is incompetent at that, I declare these people to be a bunch of whiners, with some ambulance chasing douchebag lawyer probably promising them great riches if they win.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://lifelock.com/lifelock-for-people/how-we-do-it/how-does-the-guarantee-work [lifelock.com]:
"Our Total Service Guarantee is simple. In the unfortunate event your identity is misused while you are a LifeLock member, we will reimburse direct expenses you incur
Great secuity (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Great secuity (Score:4, Insightful)
Oops, I guess I was the 800 lb. elephant in the room.
Parent
Re:Great secuity (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
I DARE you crackers! Double dog dare you! (Score:5, Funny)
Child's play. I bet you dumbsassses aren't good enough to shuttle $5,000,000 into my bank account, losers! I dare you! I double dog dare you!
Re:I DARE you crackers! Double dog dare you! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I DARE you crackers! Double dog dare you! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:I DARE you crackers! Double dog dare you! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
protection without paying money (Score:4, Informative)
There are some pretty straightforward things you can do to protect yourself from identity theft, without paying any money.
You can opt out of getting unsolicited credit card offers at optoutprescreen.com [optoutprescreen.com]. (Here [ftc.gov] is a link to them from an FTC web page so you can tell they're legit.)
You can also make a habit of getting an annual free credit report from annualcreditreport.com. [annualcreditreport.com] This can help you to detect if something goofy is going on. (Link from FTC [ftc.gov]. It's run by the credit reporting companies, and as you go through the process, they'll try hard to sell you on getting non-free services as well. You have to watch carefully, and not accept the defaults.)
IIRC there is also a process for locking your credit reports completely, but it costs money unless you can demonstrate that you've already been a victim of fraud.
Experian Deception with FreeCreditReport.com (Score:5, Interesting)
Ron
Re:Experian Deception with FreeCreditReport.com (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
HA!!! Goes to show (Score:3, Insightful)
If you ever even considered using LifeLock... (Score:5, Informative)
Step 2: Repeat step 1 every 90 days.
Step 3: Save $120 a year by doing everything LifeLock does all by yourself.
(I know, I missed the obvious, "Step 3: Profit!" joke)
Obligatory... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This morning on the radio (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Great, and when you hire one of these so called "taxi services" and they show up with a rickshaw and you get there at walking speed, are you going to feel cheated? After all, they never guaranteed a specific speed, and they got you there at exactly the same time as if you'd walked yourself,