In the News
From Colorado News 11
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Full Transcript
Don: This is a big question for just about everyone, how safe is your identity? One company guarentees it can protect you from ID theft.
Shannon: In fact, there CEO gave us his own name and social security number, daring us to steal his identity. Find out what happened.
Shannon: You probably lock your car, your home and your office when your away.
Don: Now imagine being able to lock up your identity, making it tough for the crooks to steal it. We found a company that sells ID theft protection, with a million dollar guarantee. We put it to the test in tonight’s “Call for Action”.
Betty: The CEO of Life Lock is so confident about his company and what it offers he gave me his full name and social security number and dared me. My job to see if I could steal his identity, so I went to work.
Todd Davis: 455-555-5555 – Richard Todd Davis
Betty: Armed with his permission and his personal information I headed to the world wide web. A place where I applied for credit in the name of Richard Todd Davis. At Best Buy, Target, Sears and JC Penny. The exercise didn’t take long, but it became clear real fast that I wasn’t getting anywhere using Davis’s name and social. Every single site turned me away.
The reason: Davis’s credit report is monitored by Life Lock, meaning it has a continual fraud alert on it.
Davis: Ok, I’ll get dinged for some inquiries, but they’re not going to be able to turn them into money.
Betty: Anytime Davis or any other Life Lock members credit is checked, it’s not approved until they are called first and asked if they are making an application. If they say yes, the process continues. If they say no, or they can’t be reached, the transaction is stopped dead in its tracks.
The fraud alert is placed with all three credit reporting bureau, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian as well as Check Systems, which is like a credit bureau for bank accounts.
Davis says anyone can do this on their own, they don’t have to pay a company like his to do it, but fraud alerts are only temporary and they must be continually renewed.
Davis: They only last 90 days. The expire cause the credit bureaus, remember, their job is to sell your information. So, they don’t want these fraud alerts in place, because it could impede their ability to sell your data.
Betty: Life Lock also guarantees if anything happens, if you purse or wallet is stolen and someone commits a crime using your name and you end up in jail, they’ll handle all those calls, changes and charges covering you for up to a million dollars in losses.
Again, you can do this yourself, you just have to continually renew those fraud alerts.
