“There’s nothing on my actual credit report about uncollected funds, no outstanding tickets or warrants or anything,” Todd Davis said. “There’s nothing to indicate my identity has been successfully compromised other than the one instance. I know I’m taking a slightly higher risk. But I’ll take my risk for the tremendous benefit we’re bringing to society and to consumers.”
The above statement from Todd Davis was reported by the Wall Street Journal today when he was asked about his social security number having been used by someone illegally.
Mr. Davis routinely publicizes his social security number openly to dare the identity criminals and thieves to show how his Lifelock product and services protect customers’ identities from abuse. Mr. Davis acknowledged in an interview with the Associated Press that his stunt has led to at least 87 instances in which people have tried to steal his identity, and one succeeded: a guy in Texas who duped an online payday-loan operation last year into giving him $500 using Mr. Davis’s Social Security number.
Mr. Davis learned about the fraud in Texas when the payday-loan outfit called to collect on the loan, he said. He didn’t get an alert beforehand because the company didn’t go through one of the three major credit bureaus before approving the transaction.
Mr. Davis has become subject of a lawsuit claiming that his product does not protect the customers as advertised. It should be noted that Lifelock does offer a $1m guarantee to help defend customers and cover the losses in case their identity is compromised.
Mr. Davis denied his identity has been stolen. Speaking about the reports of his identity having been stolen, Mr. Davis said, ” Those are attempts,” Davis said, responding to a list of driving license applications offered by Matt Lauer of NBC. “These are some of the 87 people who tried to use my identity … and were turned away.”
The Today Show segment’s intro narrative said, however, that at least one person had successfully stolen Davis’s identity. This would make the CEO one of about 100 customers who the company has failed.
Companies like LifeLock can help guard against only certain types of financial fraud by helping consumers set up alerts with credit bureaus, which inform them when someone tries to open a new line of credit or boost their credit limit to finance a buying binge, for example.
The services don’t guard against many types of identity theft such as use of a stolen Social Security number on a job application or for medical services, or even the instance of an arrestee giving police a stolen Social Security number to shield his own identity.
Sources: Associated Press
Wall Street Journal
