This is interesting....I see these commercials on TV all the time!


NEW TIMES - PHOENIX

CRACKING LIFELOCK: Even After a $12 Million Penalty for Deceptive Advertising, the Tempe Arizona Company Can't Be Honest About Its Identity-Theft-Protection Service

By Ray Stern Thursday, May 13 2010

It's been two months since the feds tried to gut LifeLock with a $12 million penalty for deceptive advertising, and the company's Web site still boasts that it can protect people from identity theft.

The Tempe-based company has spent millions of dollars since 2006 on ads that broadcast CEO Todd Davis' Social Security number. Customers pay $10 to $15 a month for the supposed protection — and for LifeLock's "$1 million guarantee" if the protection fails.

On one LifeLock Web page, www.todddavislifelock.com, Davis stated that he's "absolutely confident LifeLock is protecting my good name and personal information, just like it will yours."

Davis, a suit-wearing, ever-smiling salesman with short, blond hair, exudes confidence in LifeLock's ads.

But the evidence shows that he shouldn't be the slightest bit confident in LifeLock's ability to protect his name or personal data.

In June 2007, in the wake of a New Times article that exposed how LifeLock was founded with lies, news leaked that Davis had become the victim of identity theft. A man in Texas had used Davis' ID to take out a $500 loan, and Davis didn't know about it until the unpaid account went to a collection agency.

In the following months, Davis and LifeLock worked hard to spin the story into something positive. Davis claimed in an interview with MSNBC in May 2008 that the Texas incident was the one and only time anything like that had ever happened to him.

Another LifeLock page dedicated to Todd Davis, (www.lifelock.com/todd-davis) claimed (until it, like the other Davis page, was removed by LifeLock on May 4 following inquiries by New Times) that Davis "has looked to LifeLock for protection after an identity theft . . . but only once, and LifeLock was there to help."

New Times has learned, though, that the Texas incident wasn't a fluke.

In October 2007, a few months after news broke that Davis had become a victim, someone in Albany, Georgia, opened an AT&T wireless account using Davis' personal info, a Chandler police report shows.

As Todd Davis tried to deflect the bad press in the wake of the Texas crime, the Albany resident was racking up hours on a cell phone in Davis' name.

By the time AT&T cut off the person, he or she had amassed a large, unpaid bill.

That's when LifeLock and Davis finally learned of the theft.

When Albany investigators phoned Davis about the crime last year, "they were very familiar with him" and how he'd publicized his Social Security number, she says.

Yet AT&T wasn't the only company getting screwed by LifeLock's advertising scheme — because plenty more criminals have made use of Davis' data.

Records show that LifeLock representative Tamika Jones called the Chandler PD again in February 2009 to report a slew of fraudulent accounts opened in Davis' name.

More cell-phone service was fraudulently charged to Davis: Someone opened a Verizon account in New York, leaving behind unpaid bills of at least $186.

An account at Centerpoint Energy, a Texas utility, was opened. At least $122 went unpaid.

Fake Davises owe $573 to Credit One Bank and $312 to Swiss Colony, a gift-basket company.

Two other accounts, one for USA Savings Bank and a Gap credit card, were opened successfully in Davis' name but showed zero balances as of early 2009.

There were also multiple dings by collection agencies: Bay Area Credit, $265; two for Associated Credit Services, $207 and $213; and two for Enhanced Recovery Corporation, $250 and $381. Finally, there was a NCO/Fin 22 collection-agency account for $2,390, which could be the AT&T bill (considering the identical amount).

Full details as to what happened with these accounts could not be obtained from Davis. But it's clear that criminals in different locales have used Davis' ID to obtain a host of loans, goods, and services.

Davis' personal ID hasn't been merely abused since he began advertising his SSN — it's been gang-raped.

Counting the Texas incident, he's been a victim at least 13 times since 2007.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-05-13/news/cracking-life-lock-even-after-a-12-million-penalty-for-deceptive-advertising-the-tempe-company-can-t-be-honest-about-its-identity-theft-protection-service?src=newsletter