Five credit unions have decided to offer members the LifeLock identity theft service. LifeLock is the nation's first and only service that prevents identity theft and backs it up with a $1 million guarantee.
Legacy Community Federal Credit Union (Birmingham, AL), Advancial (branches in multiple states), Montrose Federal Credit Union (Montrose, CO), Space Age Credit Union (Aurora, CO) and LA DOTD (Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development) Federal Credit Union have signed onto the LifeLock program through Richardson, Texas-based Institution Solutions (ISI).
"Legacy has always been known as a strong and secure financial institution and we're simply taking that a step further by offering LifeLock," said Joe McGee, President and CEO of Legacy Community Federal Credit Union. "We've seen the stats that show that the #1 concern among consumers is identity theft so we're addressing that concern by providing a product that prevents it rather than reimbursing them after the fact."
According to The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a non-profit group in San Diego, it's estimated that 4 million people's identities were compromised since mid-February 2005. It is further predicted that in the United States alone, 15 million people (or 1 in 20) will have their identity compromised in 2006 -- that's more than a 350% increase, making ID theft by far the fastest growing crime in America.
"These credit unions recognize the value of prevention and protection over clean-up," said Kate Sheffield, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for ISI "There are a lot of ID theft programs that deal with the aftermath of the theft, but once it's already happened, it's too late. LifeLock just makes sense. We lock our cars and our homes and we're 25 times more likely to have our identity stolen than our car broken into and 40 times more likely than our house broken into. Why sit back and wait for it to happen?"
LifeLock does the prevention work by maintaining active fraud alerts with the three major credit bureaus as well as ChexSystems. The LifeLock system makes personal information useless to everyone but the rightful owner. Every time someone attempts to open credit, change an address or make changes to bank accounts, LifeLock is there to ensure the right person is making the request.
Also unique to other products on the market, LifeLock removes a member's name from solicitation lists and junk mail, eliminating a primary target of ID thieves - the pre-approved credit offer. Best of all, the LifeLock system is backed by a $1 million guarantee to completely fix any problems if a client was ever compromised.