Sabrina’s Money Matters

Okay, not so much breaking news as it is breaking news to me…but Lifelock has been sued by Experian the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Feb. 13, was talked about on The Alabama Consumer Law blog where I read it on 2-21-08 and explains why, here’s an excerpt:

Experian claims that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the 90-day alerts are intended for consumers who believe they have become the victim of fraud or will likely become a victim.

The act also stipulates that only consumers or representatives - such as a parent - can sign up for fraud alerts.

Experian argues that by continuously enrolling its customers in fraud alerts, LifeLock is costing credit-reporting agencies money.

Furthermore, Experian also contends that LifeLock does not do enough to let consumers know that they could obtain many of the services it offers on their own for free.

“LifeLock is leading consumers to believe that the service it is providing is something consumers couldn’t do themselves and they have to pay a fee for what is a legal right under federal law,” said Peg Smith, executive vice president in Experian’s Costa Mesa, Calif. office. “We believe what’s happening here is LifeLock is not providing adequate disclaimers to consumers about the fact that these are free for consumers who are truly victims of fraud.”

While I’m not sure I agree with the author of that blog, because if all Lifelock is doing is continuously hitting your credit with fraud alerts and signing up so many customers, the credit market will have everyone having fraud alerts, and thus lessen the seriousness of the alert. The more people see this coming up when they pull credit, the more and more people that have this issue, the less serious it will seem.

Compare it to watching the news. We see it everyday, so we stop caring so much at each instance of pain, torture, theft, murder, or crime in general unless it hits our hot button. Same thing with the fraud alerts, the more they are placed on people that don’t really need it, the less serious it will seem to those who decide if you’re credit worthy. This will cost us money. If you’re paying $10 a month to Lifelock, unenroll right now because this system is designed to hurt us. I say circular logic is faulty logic and Lifelock doing this reeks of stupid.

Not to mention, you have all you need here to lock your credit report, without a fraud alert. AND I’ve shown you how to set up a fraud alert if you really need it (and having a police report makes a credit lock free), pull your credit, read your report, dispute inaccuracies…what more could you ask for?

Oh yes. Do you have the dealership name on your vehicle anywhere? No? Score one for you!

For those that do have your dealership’s name on your vehicle…you are making it EASY to steal your identity.

There is an exception for some of you, because some of you can’t remove that dealership logo for warranty or service/maintenance reasons, if so, you can solve the following scenario by creating a code word with anyone who has valuable information about you available to them.

I’ll explain how this works in an example scenario, from the viewpoint of the potential identity thief…

I’m driving behind you and I happen to like your car a lot, I’ve always been a fan of Infiniti, their line has always been classy and in demand. So I write your plate number down and the name of the dealership where you got it.

Later when I get home I call my buddy that owns a used car lot and have him run the tags for me, so I can find out who owns the vehicle, and who it’s registered to, the next step is the most fun.

I call the dealership pretending to be you and ask for the last service that I had performed, because I can’t remember what it was and I also wanted to check if it was due for servicing soon. As they check the records, I compliment them and thank them for their help.

Once I find out if service is due on the vehicle, I then ask which card I made my last payment with because I didn’t write it down and need it for my end of the year taxes. They tell me that it was a Visa (pay attention) that I paid with, so I tell him that I feel so stupid, but I have several visa’s, can he tell me the number so I can match that up with the card in my wallet, it would help me out so much.

So they come back on the line after finding it and give it to me.

What happens next is that your credit card company receives a change of address and a request for a new card to be issued to a drop box that I’ve set up for this particular purpose.

Just like that. :snaps:

See how easy you make it? Too easy. You are too easy.

As much as I hate to advocate paranoia and sideways glances, it’s necessary in this day and age.

Don’t fall victim when you can prevent it, but in case it’s already happened to you, put a
Fraud Alert On Your Credit File before you get scammed anymore, then learn how to lock it for free.

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I’m following the lead of DCR today and taking the day off.

Normally, I post Friday Frustrations today, but not today. Feel free of course to post your frustrations today, in the comments on this post…

See ya’ll on the flip side!

I need help today finding something to complain about…anyone care to indulge?

Tell me what you’re frustrated about because I’m tapped out. I’m actually having a pretty good morning. Talk to me later, that might change.

What’s frustrating you?

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