Got Identity Theft Protection?

One of the services I work closely with and offer through our menu of services is Lifelock Identity Theft Protection. I have been a member of LifeLock for the past year or so and cannot overstate the peace of mind I have knowing that I do not have to worry about Identity theft. I have personally encountered two experiences over the past few months that really make you realize how vulnerable we all are to having our identity stolen:
Story #1: My wife called in a panic that our identity had been stolen. She had received a collection call for a home service we had in our former residence that we had not lived in for 6 years. She then called the utilities department and found the same thing…that the people who purchased our old house changed two bills back to our names. Knowing that I had LifeLock and a $1M Service Guarantee I was not worried whatsoever. I was in receipt of my credit bureau reports provided through LifeLock and knew they were accurate so that the two instances my wife uncovered were the extent of the concern.
Story #2: Former managers of a company I know of vacated two office spaces over the past 3-4 years and in both cases left behind numerous boxes of customer files containing personal data such as name, address, date of birth, social security number, assets, account numbers, employer, etc…. As a result of this company’s lack of responsibility and negligence, thousands of people were exposed to identity theft through no fault of their own. It made me think how many times this can happen to people when business owners or employees do not comply with safeguarding identities as required by law.

Check out this link and think about how at risk we all are! http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/090127_Payroll_Records_Tossed_in_Trash

Some random facts on Identity Theft that many people do not know that I feel is important to share:
· ID Theft tops the FTC’s list of complaints the past 8 years and has surpassed drug trafficking as the #1 crime in the US
· In 2008, 9.9 million Americans were victims of ID theft…up 22% from 2007
· There are 27,000 ID thefts per day and a stolen ID will be used up to 30 times
· ID Theft is not isolated to individuals…costs to companies who were breached had a per incident cost up to $6.65M. Providing ID Theft as a service to employees and clients could eliminate unnecessary exposure and protect a company from losing clients, dealing with lawsuits and facing potential criminal charges.
· LifeLock’s $1M Service Guarantee begins immediately upon enrollment.
· Minors are an attractive target for ID Theft as detection can take years to discover
· If you are an ID Theft victim, would you even know where to start or what to do? Cancel credit cards? Call Police? Call Credit Bureaus? Inquire with your doctors and insurance companies to explore if identity was used for medical treatment? What if an identity thief purchased a home and defaulted on a mortgage in your name? How many creditors are going to call to try and collect debt incurred by an identity thief? What if a house was sold without the owner’s knowledge?

What I am saying is, ID Theft is a serious, serious issue and consumers trying to resolve it by themselves can spend 300+ hours of their own personal time. They will have to miss work, miss personal and social events and worst of all, never know where it is going to pop up next. What if they become financially responsible for the charges incurred by an identity thief? In my opinion, LifeLock protects their clients from everything I mentioned above and is a something EVERY PERSON IN AMERICA SHOULD HAVE.