 |
LifeLock Review: Identity Theft Protection |
Go to Site | View Full Comparison Chart |
Website: |
Visit Website |
Rating: |
 |
| Strong overall value; 10% discount & free 30-day trial | |
Full Review: |
LifeLock is a great identity theft protection service at a great price. As a special offer for visitors to NextAdvisor.com, you can now get a free 30-day trial and $11.00 off the price of the service, paying just $9.00 per month or $99.00 per year after your free trial. You must click the link from our site to get this special promotion.
LifeLock monitors your identity and alerts you by email, postal mail and/or phone if your personal information is being used to open new credit cards, wireless services, retail credits, utilities, check orders/reorders, mortgage loans, auto loans, or non-credit related payday loans. If you discover that there has been an attempt to open a fraudulent account in your name, a member of LifeLock's remediation team will work with you to get the situation resolved free of charge. Since most identity theft occurs when thieves use your personal information to open new credit accounts (credit cards, bank accounts, phone accounts, etc.), LifeLock aims to prevent identity theft by stopping the fraudulent accounts from being opened in the first place. LifeLock also offers an excellent solution to protect children from identity theft. Child identity theft is an even faster growing crime than identity theft against adults. The CEO of LifeLock stands behind his product so firmly that he will gladly hand out his Social Security number on the website. While it is a great testimony for his service, we don't recommend you try it at home! In addition to advance monitoring of new accounts opened in your name, LifeLock sends you a 3-bureau credit report annually at the time of the anniversary of your sign up with the company. LifeLock also reduces pre-approved credit offers and junk mail with your name on it from circulating, thereby reducing your chance of having your identity stolen. LifeLock recently added a new feature that is included in their service called WalletLock, which we think is excellent. If your wallet is ever stolen, you just call LifeLock and speak to a WalletLock specialist, who will contact each credit card, bank or document issuing company, cancel your affected accounts and complete the paperwork and steps necessary to replace your lost documents, including your credit/debit cards, driver's license, Social Security card, insurance cards, checkbook - even travelers checks - at no additional cost. LifeLock recently added two new services included in your membership to further protect you. The first, eRecon, monitors the Internet's black markets for any use of your credit card numbers, driver's license, Social Security number and email. The second, TrueAddress, notifies you if your address has been changed in any national databases, a common tactic of identity thieves. LifeLock's guarantee is one of the best out of any of the top companies for identity protection, and it is clearly stated on their website. They guarantee your good name up to $1 million if your identity is ever stolen. While this guarantee is great, direct monetary losses from identity theft are almost always much smaller since you are not legally responsible for paying any fraudulent debt a thief accumulated. The real cost of identity theft is the loss of ability to get credit for an extended period of time, the time and effort it takes to restore your good name, and many other adverse consequences that can even include mistaken incarceration. Signing up was quick for us, and after two screens the company clearly labeled what we could expect from our account over the next year or so. Upon contacting customer service by phone with some questions, we didn't have to wait more than a moment for someone to pick up the phone, and they are available 24/7 for any questions or problems. LifeLock offers both monthly and yearly payment options for individuals and families, as well as a business-class service. Overall, LifeLock is a pioneer in identity theft protection and still offers one of the best values in the category. |
Search our blog archives and frequently asked questions for more information about Identity Theft Protection Services
| Price: | Free 30-day trial; $9.00/mo or $99.00/yr |
| Fraud Monitoring: | Applications (cell phones, loans, etc.), credit cards, Social Security number, driver's license, address change |
| ID Theft Insurance/ Guarantee: | $1,000,000 guarantee |
| Reports Delivered: | One 3-bureau credit report each year |
| Computer Security: | None |
NextAdvisor Identity Theft Protection Blog Headlines
How to get a new Social Security Card
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question:
Q: How do I get another social security card?
A: If you have lost your social security card and need another one, you can get a free replacement. The social security office limits the number of replacement cards they will issue [...]
419 scams double, over $9 billion in profits
Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
A recent study by Dutch investigation firm Ultrascan shows we are half as smart (or twice as dumb) as we were in 2008, as advanced fee scams, a.k.a. 419 scams, doubled in losses to over $9 billion. 419 Advance Fee Fraud Statistics 2009 (PDF)
It is believed that while [...]
Criminal hackers buying and selling hacked accounts
Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger.
Malicious software, designed to gather usernames and passwords, has been a boon to the criminal hacking community. Spyware, as it?s commonly known, records almost everything a user does on their PC. The most damaging spyware records all electronic communications via a web browser. That?s where the most damage [...]
Baby boomers guilty of oversharing on Facebook
A new study from Experian concludes that adults over the age of 45 share too much information online. The credit score reporting company completed a study of 1,052 men and women, analyzing their behavior on social networks. The study found that "14 percent of adults – and 20 percent of those age 60 and over [...]
What protection is available once your identity has been stolen?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question:
Q: I would like to get information on what protection is available for a person who identity is already stolen and is being attempted to be used. I was wondering about instant alerts any time my name or credit is trying to [...]
The New York Times ponders the plight of the Internet user
In this day and age, even the Fashion & Style section of The New York Times is worried about Internet security issues. This weekend, the Times recounted the experiences of Allan Goldstein, a 60 year old college professor who uses the Internet, but does so a bit nervously. He worries that NYU's online system will [...]
Connecticut sues Health Net for data breach
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has filed a lawsuit against Health Net for HIPPA violations in the wake of a data breach. Last May, Health Net discovered that a portable disk drive containing confidential health information, Social Security numbers, and bank account numbers of nearly half a million past and present enrollees had disappeared. The [...]
Chinese hackers target Google and Google users
Yesterday, Google released information about a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on [Google's] corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google." The attack also targeted at least twenty other large companies, and the hackers seem to have been specifically interested in accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human [...]
Data Breach Alert: Facebook application developer RockYou failed to protect data
RockYou is a company that develops applications for Facebook, MySpace, and a number of other popular social networking websites. It's the second biggest application developer for Facebook after Zynga, which recently made headlines for its "scammy" offers. Last month, RockYou fell victim to an SQL injection attack, in which a hacker or hackers successfully accessed [...]
International hacker pleads guilty
In August, Albert Gonzalez was indicted for his role as ringleader of a massive hacking operation targeting Heartland Payment Systems, 7-11, and supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers. The hack resulted in the theft of data for more than 130 million credit and debit cards. Authorities have called it the largest identity fraud scam in U.S. history.
Gonzalez [...]
About Us Blog Contact UsTerms & Privacy PolicyAffiliate ProgramSite map
Copyright© 2006 - NextAdvisor.com - All rights reserved.