Tag: lifelock

Identity Theft Protection With Lifelock

On By Michel McDonaldIn AdLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LifeLock Twitter for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

AmeliaIZEA | skitch.com

My very first experience with identity theft was when I had just turned 18 years old and went to get a job.  The interviewer asked me how long I have been in this country and asked me for my green card.  They did a credit check and that said that I wasn’t me.  I had to schedule a new interview where I had to bring my social security card as well as my birth certificate and my California ID card to prove that I was me.  That was in 1988.  I wrote about this experience in my book.

My second experience was in 2004 when I tried to get our utilities turned on with PG&E, they told me that I had to bring in my ID card and my social security card because according to their credit check, I wasn’t who I said I was again.  This time I asked and they told me the first name was Marsha.

Many years had gone by and I started seeing these commercials where a man was telling the world what his social security number was and daring people to steal it.  That company was LifeLock.  I decided that I did not want my prior experiences to happen again, so I signed up with Lifelock.  I only pay $10 a month and my name and social security number has never been safer.  I have been a member since January 2008.

As a member, Lifelock will send you a credit report every year and they will put restrictions in place so not even you can sign up for a credit card or buy a car without showing proof.  They will send you email and/or text alerts when someone is trying to use your credit.

Here are some interesting and alarming stats.  Households that make $100K per year have the highest fraud rate at 7.4%.  The average cost per person who loses their identity is $1,513.  11.6 million adults were victims of identity theft in 2011 and $18 billion dollars was lost.  6.6% are smart phone users, 6.8% are people who interact with apps in social media websites, 8.2% “checked in” on websites with their smart phone with GPS and 10.1% are LinkedIn users.

How hack-friendly is your password?  If you have a password that is only 6 characters without any symbols, a hacker will figure that password out in .000224 seconds, but if your password is 10 characters and uses a symbol (&%$#@), it could take them 20 days which gives you enough time to change your password every couple of weeks.  How safe do you feel now?  If they can figure out your email password and send emails on your behalf, imagine them stealing your bank account password and draining your account without you even knowing it.

If I were you, I would sign up with Lifelock today.  Check out their website and LifeLock on Twitter.  It’s nice knowing that my credit is safe.

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Credit Scams

On By Michel McDonaldIn ScamsLeave a comment

I’ve been getting these phone calls from credit companies trying to recover a huge amount of money from a person with the same name as mine as well as this persons wife named Amanda McDonald.  Well, I can safely say that I am not married or dating a woman named Amanda or any other woman’s name for that matter.

Last year I got a call from one of those places that give you money when you give them a check and they hold the check until your next payday.  I never ever go to those places at all.

Also last year I got a call saying I owed $50,000 which I know I don’t owe.  I told them that I don’t owe them and it’s not me and I was stupid enough to give them the last 4 digits of my social security number.

Yesterday I got a call and they said my name and I said yes and then she said Amanda and I said you know what, there is no Amanda McDonald here, there never was and never will be, you got the wrong person.  The lady said thank you and hung up.

Well, about an hour ago I got a phone call saying that I owe money for a Suzuki car.  Uh, I don’t think so.  I never learned how to drive and I definitely don’t have a driver’s license.  I definitely do not have a Suzuki vehicle and if I did they could come and repossess it, but I don’t have one so they are SOL.

Thankfully I am a member of LifeLock and I called them up to tell them what happened and they told me that there are a lot of people out there who are trying to scam you out of your money and because of today’s economy they can’t make money any other way but to try to steal it from other people.  They send me a credit report from all 3 credit bureau’s every year and there was nothing on it the last time and the woman from LifeLock said that I should be getting another one in a month and half so if it’s not there (the car) then don’t worry about it, it’s probably a scam.

Don’t listen to phone(y) people because they are most likely lying to you to get your money.  They will try to convince you to give them your social security number to verify their claim but you cannot give that number to them.  The only way you should ever give that information out is if you called them.  What you should do is ask them what company they are calling from then look it up on the internet and then call them.  If they don’t respond then hang up.  If there is a phone number listed on the caller ID then call the police and give them that number and they can investigate it.  If it says Unknown Caller or Private Caller that is also a way to know that it’s fake.  This call I got today said Unknown.  A credit company will have their name and number on your Caller ID.  Don’t be fooled into giving away your good name.