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Identity Theft Shield from Kroll and Pre-Paid Legal Review
Posted by Joe on June 18th, 2008
We receive dozens of emails each month asking for our opinion on Identity Theft Shield, an identity theft protection service created by Kroll, Inc and distributed by thousands of independent representatives of the network marketing firm Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. We have reviewed Identity Theft Shield and found that it offers solid identity theft recovery support for victims but takes no steps to protect their subscribers from having their identities stolen in the first place.
Identity Theft Shield offers single bureau credit report monitoring of your Experian credit file for $9.95 per month which also includes a free Experian credit report and score at sign up. Experian is the largest of the three credit bureaus and will likely reflect most major changes to your credit report, but we believe that three bureau credit monitoring is a better option since it eliminates the risk that a potentially fraudulent account or entry may not show up on your Experian credit report but end up on one of the other two bureau files in your name. Identity Theft Shield also offers a Gold package which includes credit report monitoring of all three bureaus, including Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, for $12.95. The Gold package also includes a credit report from each of the three credit bureaus at sign up.
Credit report monitoring is a good tool to help identify inconsistencies in your credit report which could be caused by identity thieves, but it doesn't prevent identity theft in any way. Other services we have reviewed, such as LifeLock, Identity Guard, Identity Truth and Trusted ID, take proactive measures to prevent identity theft crimes from being perpetrated against their subscribers. Identity Theft Shield, on the other hand, offers no tools that actually prevent identity theft.
Identity Theft Shield does offer extensive recovery services to their subscribers if they are the unfortunate victims of identity theft. Identity Theft Shield sets fraud alerts and sends notifications to all applicable government agencies and financial institutions on behalf of the victimized subscriber. They also monitor an extensive list of public and private databases in an effort to identify any misuse of a subscriber's personal information. Identity Theft Shield's recovery services also help reduce some out-of-pocket expenses and their fraud resolution specialists are able to handle much of the heavy lifting when it comes to recovering a stolen identity.
Setting fraud alerts and proactively searching national databases for suspicious activity are both great services for victims, but they are also extremely effective in preventing and identifying potential identity theft crimes. In fact, many of the other services we have reviewed offer these tools to all subscribers as preventative measures rather than after a crime has already been committed as identity Theft Shield does.
The lack of proactive identity theft prevention measures is the biggest downside to the Identity Theft Shield service. We do believe that it is a good service for victims, but many of the solutions they offer to help recover a stolen identity are used by other identity theft protection services to actually prevent identity theft in the first place.
We would suggest LifeLock or Identity Guard over Identity Theft Shield for most consumers. Both services received five stars on our comparison of identity theft protection services and, in our opinion, both deliver more extensive levels of service than Identity Theft Shield.
LifeLock offers proactive identity theft protection by setting fraud alerts on your credit file, monitoring the Internet for unauthorized use of your personal information and alerting you if anyone attempts to reroute your postal mail in an attempt to gain access to sensitive correspondence such as financial records. They also provide a fairly extensive service guarantee which will cover most costs and all the heavy lifting related to recovering your identity if it is stolen while you are a LifeLock member. This guarantee does have its limitations, which we have previously analyzed, but overall we feel that LifeLock is a more complete identity theft protection solution than Identity Theft Shield.
Identity Guard is another option, particularly if credit report monitoring is important to you. They provide 24/7 credit report monitoring of all three credit bureaus and quarterly access to your credit report from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Identity Guard also offers a series of advanced tools which help prevent and/or identify any unauthorized uses of your personal information. Plus, Identity Guard offers a $20,000 insurance policy which covers many costs in the case you that a subscriber fails victim to identity theft.
You can sign up for LifeLock and Identity Guard online or over the phone and both services offer a 30 day free trial of their product. Identity Theft Shield does not offer a free trial and can only be purchased by contacting a Pre-Paid Legal independent sales representative.
Please visit our identity theft protection service comparison to learn more about these identity theft protection services.
- Kroll Identity Theft Shield identity theft protection service review
- NextAdvisor reviews Identity Truth
- Reader Question: What service is best for protecting my identity and monitoring my credit?
- 1 in 3 Americans exposed to identity theft in 2007
- Reader Question: What should I do if I think I have been a victim of identity theft?
11 Responses to “Identity Theft Shield from Kroll and Pre-Paid Legal Review”
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June 27th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
[...] Thanks for visiting the NextAdvisor Daily blog. You may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.We recently posted a brief comparison between Kroll and Prepaid Legal's Identity Theft Shield, LifeLock and Identity Guard. Today we posted a formal review of the service on our main identity theft protection service comparison. [...]
July 20th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
What does lifelock prevent? What is so "proactive" about lifelock? What, because they place a fraud alert on one's credit reports? Fraud Alerts only deter NEW ACCOUNTS from being opened. They do not deter existing accounts and instant credit from being opened!!!
I never trust a company that dangles million dollar carrots in one's face. Marketing 101 "give um a guarantee" the idiots,they'll come running.
This guy robert maynard says he thought of lifelock while sitting in jail, not to mention the FTC told this guy to not get involved in any credit-type business after the FTC shut is arizona credit company down for file segregation or "fixing peoples credit" probably with EIN's.
To compare Lifelock with any service created by 30 plus year old KROLL RISK CONSULTING, please sir,just don't.
A risk consulting firm is looking out for their clients best interest where banks credit card companies and ins.companies are looking to draw interest out and away from you.
Their play on words as to how their counselors and caseworker are going to be with you assisting you through the process of getting back to pre-theft status.Yet the victim will still find themselves taking off from work to do all the "legwork".
First most services do not tackle all 5 areas of identity theft. They only assist with the easiest of the 5 areas, financial theft. It's the other 4 areas that are very costly, time consuming and difficult to resolve.
Kroll is not a credit-monitoring company, they are a risk consulting firm that offers an array of complex business services. When your high net worth individuals fall victim of id theft, they do not turn to lifelock, they turn to KROLL.
Their handlers and attorneys refer them to KROLL.The wealthy can afford to take a reactive-stance to identity theft because they have the $1,500 to have Krolls PROFESSIONALS do the restoration work for them so they can continue on with the busy lifestyle or schedule.
Many enrolled in KROLL's id theft service do so on a monthly "proactive" basis. Lifelock and their 1 million customers is NOTHING to KROLLS 30 million. And this service by KROLL is "word of mouth". They spend the money were it counts, on licensed investigators that know the federal and state laws pertaining to identity theft to do the bulk of the work for the victim, not on a bunch of hyped advertising and misleading fine print!!
KROLL employs licensed investigators that specialize in breach recovery at the gov't and corporate levels to go to work for the victim. We are talking about white collar crime prosecutors,forensic accountants, forensic IT specialist individuals with degrees in criminal justice/political science ex-intelligence agency personnel and law enforcement. Now that is a far cry from a counselor or caseworker.
Besides these companies that offer caseworkers, etc…, who are they? Are they well trained is the question? Are they low wage earners assisting and making phone calls for victims of identity theft and with being a low wage earner will they succumb to stealing the same persons information they are suppose to be helping? Hummmmm???
To question the services of a 30 year risk consulting firm that was commissioned to facillitate the investigation that helped lead to the unraveling and conviction of Kenneth Lay and other executive in the infamous ENRON scandal….please, what has lifelock done lately?
What I tell people who enroll in these services that have just sprung out of nowhere in the past 2-4 years….keep your money in your pocket unless you want "TRUE-RESTORATION SERVICES" by KROLL.
Why pay 120.00 a year to lifelock for a damn free fraud alert? If I can't remember to place a free fraud alert on my report every 3 month's, I will give that job to my son and pay him 120.00 a year to remind dad to renew his fraud alert then to give my money to a bunch of crooks that never thought lifelock would take off as it did.
They thought they would make probably 20-50 million before everyone caught on to their not telling subscribers when the service first started, all the services lifelock offers a consumer can do and get for FREEEEE! Now that the money is being made, oh now they don't mind revealing this.
One last thing, the service by KROLL covers both head of household for about 15.00 where most other services charge 13-15.00 for one person. they can't even beat KROLL and their marketing partner Pre-Paid Legal on the price to enroll. two people for 15.00. that's what 7.50 for all that experience!!! Identity Theft Shield is where it is at in this industry. Take it from me, a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist.
I try not to endorse but I hate to see people waste their money on these "commercial" services. What Kroll offers you can do for free, but when it involves a serious case of theft wouldn't you want a professional to handle the crisis for you if you do not specialize in that area, it is your name and credit we are talking about?
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Hi Lerone,
Thank you very much for your lengthy comment. I would encourage you to read our complete review of LifeLock. Many of the questions you bring up are answered there. We have also written extensively elsewhere on this blog about LifeLock's guarantee and their overall service offering.
Your criticisms seem in-line with what we have heard from representatives from Kroll and pre-paid legal. I am curious, are you associated with either company?
Thanks again for your comment.
Joe Fahrner
NextAdvisor.com
August 11th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Mr. Fahrner:
1) Identity Theft cannot be prevented by just your simple personal actions. Just read the paper last week if you doubt it. In fact it is not the prevention that is the concern, but how do you restore the identity back to square 1?
2) Identity theft is more extensive than credit. It also covers DMV, SS#, medical, and warrants against you. There is no way Lifelock, Citibank, Wacovia or Farmer's Insurance can help you. It will take a lawyer to correct those situations. So called experts like you perpetuate the myths that the credit card companies want us to believe. If you are going to publish a website on this subject, please at least know the subject.
3) Why are there so many lawsuits against LifeLock if it is so grand?
4) Why did Todd Davis have to hire an outside company to restore his ID if his system was so perfect as you indicate?
Yes, I am affiliated with 2 companies who provide actual restoration which works because I have friends who used it and it cost them nothing nor did they have to do it. No, I will not mention the names and yes, I am a CITRMS, Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist who works with small business in the employee education process.
Thank you.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
To all parties concerned:
I have been reading a number of reviews on these companies lately. And all of them have both good and bad comments, or complaints against them.
We all need to remember that most of these companies have popped up over the last 3 years due this rapidly growing crime. They all seen a opportunity to make BUKU bucks from millions of consumers on a monthly basis.
This service is a business like any other, so of course they all claim to be the best. The only possible way to know which one is the best, is to review actual cases from real people who have used these services after becoming victims of id theft.
I myself have the identity theft shield membership. I have had it for about 4 years now. It was the first service of it's kind to come into the market. I personally have noticed that every time something was entered on my credit report, I recieved my email notification.
The biggest fault that I can see with the idt shield is that they did away with the 25,000 compensation plan. I believe they did that because they could not sustain a profitable business by offering people that much compensation for only 13.00 per moth.
However, Kroll inc, also known as Kroll backround america, has been around for a long time, and they are the leading risk manegement firm out there.
They also have direct relationships with all the government agencies involved. The u.s. government uses them for many services. I don't think any of these other companies have that kind of reputation.
My money stays with the sheild.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:32 am
This is a bogus review, the review is written in a way that misleads people into thinking Identity heft Shield does not do anything preventative, but it is self-contradictory, and contradictory to the facts.
First you say that they do not do anything preventative, and then you say:
"They also monitor an extensive list of public and private databases in an effort to identify any misuse of a subscriber's personal information."
and then you say:
"Setting fraud alerts and proactively searching national databases for suspicious activity are both great services for victims, but they are also extremely effective in preventing and identifying potential identity theft crimes. In fact, many of the other services we have reviewed offer these tools to all subscribers as preventative measures rather than after a crime has already been committed as identity Theft Shield does."
Identity theft shield does both and this is a misleading article that preys on people who think they6 are doing independent research, when in actuality this site belongs to someone with an interest in lifelock.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Robert- Thanks for stopping by and for the comment.
The post is neither contradictory to the facts nor self-contradictory. Many services we have reviewed proactively provide fraud alerts and fraud monitoring before a members identity has been stolen. Identity Theft Shield does no provide such services until AFTER a member has been victimized. This is not a proactive use of these tools.
Identity Theft Shield provides single credit monitoring on an ongoing basis, but credit monitoring only alerts a user to changes to their credit report which are already impacting their credit score. Credit monitoring is a valuable service, but it is by no means a viable early warning detection system for potential identity theft.
For what it is worth, the stance of Identity Theft Shield's own representatives is that the service does not do anything preventative beyond providing credit report monitoring. The company's consist messaging is that there is no way to prevent identity theft, which we disagree with. We believe that there is no way to prevent 100% of id theft, but risks can be mitigated.
We continue to stand behind our review of Identity Theft Shield and other identity theft protection services. Certainly, your dissenting opinion is welcome, but your unfounded accusations about our motivations are not.
Thanks again,
Joe
NextAdvisor.com
July 14th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Hey there Joe, just wanted to note that i came across your article, and I wasn't sure when you got your info, but on the chart, I think you forgot to include that Identity Theft Shield does have a 1-3 credit beaureau Fraud Alert that gets emailed or sent to your home snail mail. I got an alert last night. If need be, although there isn't a cap on how much money is guaranteed back, Identity Theft Shield can also provide legal access & representation if someone chooses to have it, even after they discovered the fraud from the Alerts sent.
Anyway, I noticed that somehow you included Fraud Alerts and Bureau monitoring for other companies in the "prevention box", but forgot to include it in Identity Theft Shield. Just an observation so that your chart doesn't give off the impression that you favor the others with a bias or anything like that.
Anyway, thanks for all the info on this.
Have a great week.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Joe is correct. Facts simply stated, I.D. Thieves do their damage in minutes – Faster than any notification. Also STOP thinking financial! I.D. Thieves steal Drivers License, Medical Insurance, Social Security to get jobs & criminal by giving your name instead of theirs – The Credit agencies have no association with these problems and you won't get notified. If a burgler is in your house you want the police not a fraud packet in the mail telling you to fix the problem. Kroll is the ONLY agency that REPAIRS – - PERIOD! They know the ropes being X-CIA/FBI agents – you don't. Choose a protection company that is over 30 years old traded on the NYSE. KROLL
August 12th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
It seems like because your site offers discounts and other perks for using other id theft services you left out features of the id theft shield that would show that it is a superior product. I have had the shield for 2 years and think the service is great! Now lets compare, two 30 year old companies combine to create the most complete id theft product on the market or some 3 year old company trying to take advantage of the the current conditions. I'll stick with experience!!
Have a great week.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Mr. Fahrner,
After reading your reply to Mr. Webster I am curious as to what companies you are affiliated with. May I ask; how will you be implementing the FTC Blogger Advertisement and Endorsement requirement?
http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm
Regards