Identity protection ads come back to bite LifeLock CEO
Todd Davis is the CEO of LifeLock, a company that offers protection from identity theft. He includes his social security number in advertisements to show how great his company is.
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.Link (Thanks, Cowicide!)Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver's licenses at least 20 times using Davis' Social Security number, though some of the applications may have been rejected because data in them didn't match what the Social Security Administration had on file.
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social security: keep it secret. Keep it safe.
I must say, I'm not entirely clear how social security works in relation to ID, but the first time I saw this guy's ad it struck me as a really bad idea. Especially the walking down the street with a megaphone--it kind of reminds you of medieval mountebanks peddling medicine. They drink it, so it must be ok.
"You sayin' if somebuddie' takes muh soshal securitee iD, go's down da street and buys an Arr Vee...They can do it?"
I'm so sick of that tv spot...
all I gotta say about this is: WELL, DUH.
Lol! They don't do anything you can't do yourself, for free. Any person can place a Fraud Alert through any one of the Credit Reporting agencies (they are required by law to notify the other two, regardless), which does exactly what LifeLock's service charges you for. Anyone applying for new credit or a loan will automatically be declined, basically. If YOU are applying for a loan or credit, you can simply let them know that you have a fraud alert placed, so the extra steps can be taken to be approved. You can have this alert placed temporarily, for x-number of years, or permanently.
As far as ID goes, that's a whole 'nother animal. It is actually scary how easily one can get a legitimate replacement Birth Certificate and SS card online. Many people throw into the trash, all the information a criminal needs to do just that. I was able to get a certified copy of my husband's birth certificate easily - took about 3 minutes to fill out the form, and it was mailed to me. Luckily I was doing it at his behest...but it does raise an eyebrow for me.
Protect your personal info like it's gold, because it might well be to someone else. Bottom line.
Personally, I think the entity responsible for assigning SS#'s should also be responsible for securing them. At least one other person has used my social security number for something (I don't know what), but I haven't the foggiest idea how they got it or what to do about it. Maybe credit ratings should not be based on SS#'s, which can be so easily manipulated or misused.
This reminds me of rather hilarious incident ealrlier this year involving Jeremy Clarkson, a host of BBC's Top Gear program.
Clarkson poo-poohed the risk of data loss after 2 computer disks containing personal information from HM Revenue and Customs office went missing. To show how little he believed in the risk he published his bank account numbers in the Sun Newspaper.
Shortly thereafter someone had taken £500 out of his bank account and put it in a charity account.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm
The problem with SSNs will persist for as long we insist that you can use the same token as both username and password. Eventually the problem will be solved by issuing every person a second string that can be kept secret and used as a password, and then the nine digit SSN can be used as a public identifier to tell all the different John Smiths apart.
I saw this commercial and felt almost compelled to click a stopwatch to see how long it would take for someone to hack in someplace and get his info.
Obviously, not long at all.
That is what America is supposed to be all about, according to the US government. Life, liberty and the pursuit of riches. After all, what's a little fear as long as they're spending money?
I saw this guy's ads in a number of local papers recently and thought, "Yep, this ain't gonna end well."
What a great retraction from Jeremy Clarkson!
"Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy."
Ah, the best thing is that there's nothing to stop you from getting someone's information and signing up for LifeLock yourself.
Not to mention the number of times Todd Davis's identity has been stolen since he started broadcasting his SSN.
#4 BadKittyM says it's easy to get replace birth certs and SS cards online. So my idea is this, get a bunch of these replacement birth certs and SS cards. Maybe about 200 or so. Then sell these real fake-ids. When we have a buyer, we just search for the best match - gender, age, appearance, etc.