As the saying goes, if it sounds too good ... I guess LifeLock was. On his TV commercials, LifeLock chief executive officer Todd Davis claimed that, for $10 a month, his company could "guarantee" its customers wouldn’t become victims of identity theft.
If that sounded too good to be true, it’s because it was, the Federal Trade Commission and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said today, announcing a $12 million settlement with the Arizona company of a lawsuit that accused it of making deceptive claims.
As part of the settlement with the FTC, Illinois and 34 other states, LifeLock also agreed to stop making misleading claims and to improve the security of its customers' data.
It’s the largest settlement of its kind, according to FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz, who announced the settlement at a news conference in Chicago.
Davis promoted LifeLock’s $10-a-month service in commercials by saying he was so sure it works that he was giving out his own Social Security number, which was displayed on the side of a truck.
“In truth,” Leibowitz said, “the protection LifeLock provided left such a large hole you could drive that truck through it.”
LifeLock, he said, “developed a market to capitalize on customers’ fears of having their identity stolen,” but “promised protection they didn’t deliver.”
Under terms of the settlement, the company must pay $1 million to the 35 states that investigated it, with the remaining $11 million to be distributed among LifeLock customers.
LifeLock’s failure to protect customers’ personal information was “especially shameful for a company that has a business model of protecting against identity theft,” Leibowitz said.
In a written statement, Davis said his business had raised public awareness of identity theft. And he said he welcomed the settlement, saying it sets industrywide guidelines to help “protect consumers from the risks of identity theft.”Read the rest of the article here. I was going to post this in FW-Finance but too many sharks in there ready to pounce on anything that's not 100% finance-related.
Well, after paying the fines they probably still made a bundle. Talk radio stations will take any kind of ad if the bill gets paid: Buy Gold, Work at Home, credit card problems resolved...prostate pills.... "Fall of the Republic" Book plus you name it. The entire talkshow industry is financed on companies selling deceptive products or services just like the talkshow hosts.
Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com.
Members of our community may attach files to a post in accordance with the User Agreement. FatWallet is not responsible for the content, accuracy, completeness or validity of any information contained in any attached file. Files have *not* been scanned for viruses. Be especially wary of Excel files which may contain malicious content.
