Does Lifelock Work?

Does Lifelock work seems a popular question on the security forums nowadays and to answer it we need to look at a few official numbers. For every one million Americans the Government expect 30 000 to be a victim of identity theft. Lifelock has around one million customers and so far less than 80 of them have had to make a claim on their guarantee. I'd say those figures pretty much prove conclusive that Lifelock does work but if not, there is more....

How does Lifelock work?

Lifelock works by placing fraud alerts on your credit files on your behalf. This means that any company who does a credit check on you causes a red flag to be raised and you are informed. Credit checks are carried out when someone applies for credit, a loan, a credit card etc. Lifelock also ensure your name is removed from mail lists as the less your details are spread around the less chance of them falling into the wrong hands.

How well does Lifelock work compared to other identity theft protection companies?

Lifelock stops your identity from being stolen where as other identity theft protection companies such as IdentityTrust monitor your credit and report unusual activity to you AFTER the event. Because Lifelock place a fraud alert on your credit file the only way possible for someone to misuse your name to gain credit is if the provider of the line of credit did not do a credit check and because identity theft is now a major problem (its the fastest growing crime in America) this is very unlikely to happen.

Does Lifelock work with credit experts because i have heard I can do everything that Lifelock does all for myself and save some money?

Lifelock use experts who know exactly how the system works and make sure your fraud alerts are in place at all times. The 3 credit bureau's don't like you to place a fraud alert against your name and they certainly do not like your name being removed from mail lists as it is the sale of these lists that make them so much money. For this reason they don't make it easy for you to do it yourself. Each alert only lasts a certain amount of time and for it to be effective you cannot let it lapse.

You certainly could do the work yourself just as you could walk to work this morning. Question is why would you walk when you have a car and why would you take it on yourself to protect your own identity when Lifelock can do it for a few cents a day. Perhaps the answer to the original question Does Lifelock work? should have been yes because Lifelock gives you peace mind. They take care of dealing with all the credit bureau's for me and they give me a $1 million guarantee that they have done it correctly and no one can steal my identity.