Five Years
After Settlement with FTC, LifeLock Begins to Pay Up 10/16/19 By: Nick Roper,
Administrative & Advocacy Associate, Consumer Federation of America and
Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy, Consumer Federation
of America It’s taken a while, but if you bought LifeLock’s identity
theft services between 2012 and 2014, you may be receiving some money from the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) soon. The FTC recently announced
that it was distributing $31 million in checks averaging $29 each to more than
a million consumers under a 2015 settlement
with the company. This case actually goes back to 2010 when LifeLock agreed to
settle charges
by the FTC and 35 states that it falsely claimed it could protect consumers
from identity theft and that the personal information it collected from consumers
was kept securely. While not acknowledging any wrongdoing, LifeLock promised not
to make deceptive claims in the future, to beef up its data security, and to
pay $12 million, most of which was refunded to consumers. But according to the FTC, Lifelock failed
to live up to that agreement by continuing to use deceptive advertising and not
implementing a robust security program. So the FTC took action to enforce the
2010 order, leading to the 2015 settlement. Consumer Federation of America (CFA) had flagged problems
with LifeLock and other identity theft services in 2009 with its groundbreaking
report,
To Catch a Thief: Are Identity Theft
Services Worth the Cost? “When we studied this industry it was disturbing
to find that many companies were misleading consumers about what their services
did and weren’t providing enough information about how what they did worked,”
said Susan Grant, CFA’s Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy. To address
these problems, CFA created a working group consumer advocates and industry
representatives to produce Best Practices for Identity Theft Services,
which encourage ID theft companies to provide clear information about the
services they offer and refrain from deceptive advertising. CFA also has tips
for consumers
and businesses
about what to consider if they are in the market for identity theft services. About those checks from the LifeLock settlement: scammers always take advantage of the news, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they contact consumers pretending to be from the company or the FTC to trick them into revealing personal information in order to get the money. The FTC is not calling people to tell them that the checks are coming or to ask them for any kind of payment or account information, and neither is LifeLock. If you get a check from the FTC, deposit or cash it within 60 days. And if you have a question about the refunds, call the refund administrator, Rust Consulting Inc., at 1-866-898-5106 or visit www.ftc.gov/refunds. |