LifeLock Blog

Culpepper, Virginia is a Washington, D.C. bedroom community, and a quiet little town with fewer than 10,000 residents. More than three-quarters of those townspeople are now at an elevated risk of identity theft because of a data breach.

A vendor who was hired to reformat Culpeper’s electronic property tax file inadvertently posted the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 7,845 taxpayers on a compromised website. The information was discovered March 27, and removed March 30, according to town manager Jeff Muzzy.

The town notified its citizens of the data breach via a letter dated April 3. In it, Muzzy stated they don’t know of any fraudulent activity related to the exposure of taxpayers’ identifying information, but said the site where it was posted also contained other compromised confidential information. No details were given as to what other information was exposed.

The letter also offered affected citizens tips on how to protect their personal information, but made no mention of any plans to provide credit monitoring as is customary after a data breach.

The Government/Military sector was responsible for 110 of the 656 reported data breaches in 2008, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

That big truck driving around the country—the one with the Social Security number on it? That’s the Life Lock truck. And the Social Security number belongs to Todd Davis, Life Lock CEO. Pretty cocky, huh?

The thing is, Life Lock works, and Davis knows it. There are about 1.5 members of Life Lock around the country who know it, too. Check out what just a handful of them have to say about the service at LifeLock.com. Comments like “…we continued on with our vacation knowing we were safe,” tell you how good it feels to have the Life Lock service, and just how good the service is.

And that’s what Life Lock is.  They do all the things you know you’re supposed to do, and could do for yourself free. They take your name off all the lists. They order a copy of your credit report. They place and renew the fraud alerts. Sure you could do it free—we all could. But who actually does this stuff?

Life Lock does it for you. And then they add extras that you can’t get anywhere else. They replace all your documents if you lose your purse or wallet. That’s a huge service.

And for less than $10 a month, that’s a great deal.

Having to move to a nursing home, or having to place a loved one in a nursing home, is surely one of the hardest things anyone can go through. No matter how well we research, how clean the place seems, or how nice the staff seems to be, it’s the horror stories we’ve all heard that keep us awake at night.

I hate to do it, but here’s another of those horror stories. Tamara Smith, a certified nursing assistant who worked in several Savannah, GA area nursing homes, has been charged with stealing the identities of more than 40 of the nursing home residents that she was supposed to be caring for.

She used that information to open credit card accounts, and to buy computers and cell phones.

Smith’s victims were as young as 60 and as old as 100. Along with the 43 identity theft charges against her, Smith will also receive an elder abuse charge for each victim over 65. More than half of her victims are, or were, residents at Tara Nursing Home in Thunderbolt, GA.

Irene Pennington, Thunderbolt police chief said they’re still investigating the identity thefts, and expect to discover more victims. She also said they expect to arrest others suspected of being involved in the crimes.

LifeLock provides identity theft protection to nearly 1.5 million people in the United States. Visit LifeLock.com to learn more about their innovative and comprehensive services. Enroll using the LifeLock promotional code Defense to receive a huge discount.

Types of Identity Theft

There are several different types of identity theft, and any one of them could happen to you.

Synthetic Identity Theft

This first term describes the most common type of identity theft. Criminals steal or make up a Social Security number and then build a total identity with name, address, phone numbers, date of birth etc. If these identifiers even come close to matching your personal information, a subfile may be attached to your credit records. Of course the debts accrued by the perpetrators go unpaid and ultimately damage your credit.

Mailbox Identity Theft

Home mailboxes are a gold mine for identity thieves. The raised red flag notifies them that there’s probably a check for an outgoing bill in the box, and all the criminal has to do to reach in and help himself. Incoming mail is also a rich vein of information for thieves. Think of all the pre-approved credit offers you get in the mail every month; everything the thief needs to perpetrate identity theft is right there. If he’s especially lucky, he might even hit your mailbox on the day one of your creditors sends you those convenient blank checks.

Phishing and Identity Theft

You’ve probably already seen an attempt at this type of identity theft in your e-mail’s inbox. The object here is to trick you into divulging personal information by responding to an email purportedly from a credit card company, your bank or ebay. Commonly the email is sent in the guise of a security maintenance check, asking you to verify your account number or other personal information. The trickiest thing about phishing emails is that the phishers can cut and paste graphics from the authentic company website making distinguishing real from fake nearly impossible. Tip offs are spelling errors, poor grammar, or a general salutation, e.g., “Dear Customer.”

Data Breaches and Identity Theft

In the last few years, hundreds of millions of Americans have been compromised when their personal or financial information was lost, stolen or mishandled while in the hands of private, corporate or governmental entities. Very often this is the result of employees losing laptops, or administrators inadvertently placing information on the internet. The largest data breach to date is the TMX incident in which the data on 94 million TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods or Bob’s Stores shoppers was hacked from their network. Though hacking seems to get the most media attention, it actually represents only a small number of data breaches. The largest governmental breach occurred when a data analyst for the US Department of Veterans Affairs took home a laptop containing the records of 26.5 million current and former military members. Unfortunately, his home was robbed and the burglar made off with the laptop.

Visit LifeLock.com and use the Life Lock discount code Defense for the lowest available price.

Visit LifeLock.com to learn more about the identity theft protection service chosen by more than 1 million Americans. Give LifeLock as a Christmas gift using the LifeLock promotion code Defense and pay only $9 a month to protect someone you love.

We all have hard to buy for people on our Christmas shopping lists. But choosing a thoughtful gift for an elderly man or woman might be the most challenging.

One of the most thoughtful Christmas gifts for an elderly family member is LifeLock identity theft protection. Seniors are especially vulnerable to identity theft, but Life Lock’s services can protect them.

• WalletLock™: Lost or stolen wallets are the most common source for identity thieves. Only LifeLock offers this service to immediately cancel and replace driver’s licenses, credit cards, Social Security cards … any official or financial documents that were in the wallet.  This service is essential for elderly people who have memory disorders or dementia.
• Junk mail reduction: Less junk mail and pre-approved credit offers means fewer opportunities for identity thieves. Stolen mail is the second most common sources of information for identity thieves.
• TrueAddress™: Identity thieves commonly divert their victims’ mail by submitting a change of address. LifeLock’s TrueAddress™ tool monitors these submissions to make sure your loved one’s identity isn’t threatened.
• Fraud alerts: Anytime a prospective creditor checks customers’ credit file, the customers are called to verify the applicant’s identity. LifeLock will help renew the fraud alert every 90 days so their protection is uninterrupted.
• Credit reports: LifeLock will help the customer get annual credit reports to check for any erroneous or unusual new entries.
• eRecon™: Millions of stolen identities are bought, sold and traded over the Internet every year. eRecon™ monitors the sites used by identity thieves and crime rings for any aspect of a customer’s identity.

Consumers want to prevent becoming identity theft victims. They want comprehensive protection of their finances, their personal information and their good names, but they don’t get that with credit monitoring.

Here’s how credit monitoring works: The service provider watches action on the customer’s credit cards and credit report. If they see unusual activity–a sudden rash of new credit cards or new credit card charges in New Jersey for a customer in New Mexico—they contact the customer to let them know someone is New Jersey has stolen their identity.

Credit monitoring services sound the alarm after the thief has obtained and used the customer’s credit information.

At LifeLock, they know all about how identity thieves work, and they employ a comprehensive variety of tools to stop them.

• Fraud alerts: Once the fraud alert is in place, the consumer is notified anytime their information is used to obtain new credit.
• Cutting off the types of mail thieves look for: LifeLock will work with marketing associations to take the customer’s name off their lists. No more junk mail, and no more pre-approved credit offers for thieves to steal.
• WalletLock™: Lost and stolen wallets are still the most common source of information for thieves. When it happens to LifeLock customers, Wallet Lock™ helps them cancel and replace all official documents, credit cards and checks before thieves can use them.
• TrueAddress™: A common ploy used by thieves is the diversion of mail to a new address. If an address change is ever submitted for a customer’s address, the customer will be notified immediately.
• eRecon™: Identity thieves buy, sell and trade their victims’ information on the Internet. eRecon monitors all known websites used for those transactions. If a customer’s name, birth date, address, SSN, driver’s license or account numbers are detected, the customer is immediately notified, and a customer service representative helps them cancel and replace documents and works with law enforcement to catch the criminals and close down the website.

LifeLock protection is comprehensive, complete and reliable. Credit monitoring is incomplete, ineffective and unreliable.

Visit LifeLock.com to learn more about their many innovative and exclusive identity theft protection tools. If you decide you’re ready for complete protection of your credit and your good name, enroll using the LifeLock promotional code Defense and get the lowest price available.