Angie’s list notes Lifelock under scrutiny

by Doug Pollack

Angie’s List is a tremendously popular website that provides “unbiased reports and reviews about service companies”. In this month’s magazine, they publish an article about Lifelock, a very high profile ID theft protection service, that is coming under fire.

The article titled “Identity protection service LifeLock faces scrutiny” describes current litigation that LifeLock is current embroiled in, as well as issues that are being surfaced about the level of identity theft protection offered by the way LifeLock uses the fraud alert mechanism available to consumers from the credit bureaus.  Per this article:

“LifeLock also has come under fire from a number of directions. The company faces an investigation from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, a class-action lawsuit and a suit filed by Experian, one of the nation’s three major credit bureaus. Both Experian and the class-action suit allege that LifeLock is engaging in false advertising and deceptive trade practices and that its million-dollar guarantee to members is misleading and filled with loopholes. Furthermore, these critics — along with several credit and identity theft experts — point out that LifeLock charges its members $10 a month for services that consumers can mostly do themselves for free. They also say that LifeLock only protects against new account theft — in other words, when someone uses your credit information to obtain a loan without your knowledge. Javelin Strategy and Research, which tracks financial trends, says this form of identity theft accounted for less than one-third of the 8.1 million identity theft cases in 2007.”

I would think that any organization that is considering embracing LifeLock to address the serious threat posed by identity theft to their customers, members or employees, should make this “must” reading.