LifeLock

Consequences of Identity Theft

Identity theft is expensive. Victims can be:

• Falsely arrested
• Denied credit
• Denied promotions
• Denied jobs
• Denied housing rentals
• Rejected for insurance
• Paying higher credit card interest rates
• Paying higher insurance premiums

You can spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars trying to clean up your credit and fighting to get back your financial credibility if your identity is stolen. Stolen identities often are used 30 times or more with the victims being unaware that their identity has been stolen until they are denied credit or contacted by a collection agency.

Fraud Alerts Stop Identity Theft

In 2003, Congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (the FACT Act) which established the National Fraud Alert System. This system requires creditors to confirm identities before giving credit to any consumers who have a fraud alert in their credit files at the major credit bureaus.

With a fraud alert in their files, consumers can be in control of their credit because actions cannot be taken without their prior knowledge. As soon as a creditor such as a bank or a cell phone company sees the fraud alert in the file, they are required to call the consumer before they take any action such as to:

• Offer a pre-approved credit line
• Issue a credit card or a loan
• Open a new bank account
• Increase a credit line
• Create a new account like electricity or cell phone account

Fraud alerts are an excellent way to protect your credit, but be aware that maintaining a fraud alert can be troublesome. You need to:

• Make your phone number available to all potential creditors, even if it is an unlisted number
• Renew the fraud alert every 90 days

LifeLock Fraud Alert Service

LifeLock is a service that places, renews and manages the fraud alerts for you and contacts you if any credit requests need to be validated. It gives you the protection you need against credit card fraud with a lot less work than if you managed the fraud alert process yourself. Yes, you could do all this work yourself including placing and renewing the alerts at all credit bureaus, ordering free annual credit reports, writing various organizations to take your names off mailing lists -- but it takes a lot of work, persistence, follow-up and knowledge of the ever-changing laws.

Benefits

LifeLock will:

• Set fraud alerts on your credit reports at all major credit bureaus within one hour of signing up
• Automatically renew your fraud alerts every 90 days
• Request that your name be removed from pre-approved credit card offer lists and junk mail lists, and renew these requests when they expire
• Order free credit reports on your behalf from the major credit bureaus every year, and have them sent directly to you
• Contact you at any number you provide to ensure that any credit request is valid. You don't have to give out your private telephone number.
• Pay professionals (including attorneys, accountants and investigators) to assist you in restoring any losses or recovering any expenses if your identity is stolen
• Refund up to $1 million for the cost of professionals to assist you in restoring any loss or recover such expenses incurred as a result of identity theft

Protection for Kids

Kid's identities are now being stolen. They are easy targets because their credit reports are usually not monitored. They don't find out that their identities have been stolen until they apply for their first credit card or for a student or car loan.

To protect the children of their clients, LifeLock also offers identity theft protection for kids under age 16. Specifically, they:

• Check credit reports every six months to ensure that there is no activity
• Place fraud alerts on credit reports
• Check for work history or any misuse of the Social Security number

Cost

LifeLock does not require a long-term commitment, and you can cancel at any time. They provide both monthly and yearly options. The costs are:

• Adults 16 and older – $10 a month or $110 a year
• Kids under 16 – $2.50 a month or $25 a year

Contacting LifeLock

For more information, visit the LifeLock website.

You can also call their client services line at 1-877-LIFELOCK, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.