Identity theft might be a thing of the past.
Or so says LifeLock Chief Executive Officer Todd
Davis. For $10 a month, his company promises to
protect people from all forms of identity theft.
Davis is coming to VCU Tuesday as part of the
LifeLock “Strike Back: Defeat Identity Theft Now”
campaign. Davis has been traveling up the east coast
toward Washington, D.C., acquiring signatures for a
petition to Congress to form tougher identity-theft
laws and regulations to protect consumers.
While at VCU, LifeLock will have a table in the
University Student Commons from 11 a.m. to 3:15
p.m. at which the petition will be available for students
to sign and former identity-theft victims will be able
to tell their tale. Davis also will lecture during George
Kasper’s Business Information Systems classes at 11
a.m. and 2 p.m. These lectures are only for Kasper’s
students and are not open to the public.
“We’re going to be the convenience service,” Davis
said in a phone interview. “Similar to the same ability
someone would have to do their own taxes or washing
their own car.”
Among the services provided by LifeLock, Davis said
the company places credit-fraud alerts, renews those
alerts, helps members opt out of pre-approved creditcard
offers and orders new copies of credit reports.
“All those are steps people could take the time to do
themselves,” Davis said. “But we’re there if they’d like it.
We’re there in case something happens to you as well.”
Davis is confident in his company, having posted his own social-security number on its Web site, on its
vehicles and in its commercials.
“We’re so confident in that, we backed it up with
a $1 million guarantee,” Davis said. “If anything does
happen while you’re a member of LifeLock, we’ll actually
go fix the problem for you and cover all losses-all
expenses up to $1 million.”
Confidence in the company was shaken this past
summer when Davis’ highly publicized social-security
number was used illegally by an identity thief to take
out a $500 loan. LifeLock took matters into its own
hands, instead of waiting for police to act, in an attempt
to gain a signed confession from the individual.
The company’s actions resulted in
the charges against the thief being
dropped.
Kasper said LifeLock contacted
him, and he is aware of LifeLock’s actions
following the incident involving
Davis’ identity being stolen.
Kasper said he asked Davis to
speak to his class about the threat
of identity theft online.
“I think it’s one of the
threats to full development of
electronic commerce,” Kasper
said. “I hope the students
enjoy it.”
Davis said only a small fraction
of identity theft happens
on the Internet.
“Even though (people) do
use the Web to steal identities,
only about 16 percent of identity
theft occurs over the Web,” Davis
said. “About 50 percent of the
cases occur because an employer
or someone you do business with
. loses your data.”
As for whether the charge that
comes along with LifeLock’s services
is worth it, Kasper wouldn’t say.
“No comment on LifeLock itself,”
Kasper said.
Davis’ Tuesday lectures will focus
on identity thieves already targeting the
existing systems and about how to respond
to identity theft.
“They’ve got to build it from the ground
up,” Davis said. “There’s already an inherent
vulnerability in the fact that we collect
people’s social-security numbers-unique
identifiers of personal information.”
Davis said people age 18 to 25 are a
major target for identity theft, making
college students a major target for both
identity thieves and LifeLock. Since 2005,
more than 220 million people have had their personal
data compromised, Davis said.
“Unfortunately, universities happen to make up a
significant part of that list,” Davis said. “You have to
give your information for enrollment – if you’re getting
financial aid, if you want to go get medical treatments at
the health center . there’s all these disparate databases.
The thieves know they’re out there, and thieves are
targeting them.”
Davis said the “Strike Back” petition has approximately
12,000 signatures. The goal is 20,000. The campaign will
hit D.C. on Thursday.