... Identity Theft Ratings Comparison

................ Identity Theft Ratings Comparison Identity theft affected 11.1 million Americans in 2009. It is the fastest growing crime in the country. The impacts to victims of identity theft are varied, often requiring hundreds of hours to resolve. Choosing which protection policy offers the most value is not as easy as you might think. Many companies in this industry spend significant marketing dollars to lull you into a false sense of security, making you think you are covered when in fact you are not. Some claim to be able to prevent you from becoming a victim, which is impossible. While you can reduce your risk, you cannot prevent it from happening to you or your loved ones even your children. When you become a victim of identity theft and are dealing with such scenarios as being arrested, or attempting to work with the Social Security Administration, the DMV, or even your local hospital, that is not the time you want to find out that the flashy policy you purchased does not actually get involved and do the restoration work on your behalf. Cleaning up a stolen identity is difficult and tedious work, and this site is dedicated to helping you understand the advantages and disadvantages of various protection policies available. We do not accept any advertising, remuneration, or compensation from any entity. Questions and comments are always welcome and may be directed to wholeskinny@gmail.com. Sincerely, The Whole Skinny Team Rating #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 Monthly Cost $36.95 $39.90 # Adults Covered 2 2 # Children Covered 4 0 Underwriting LegalShieldsm, Identity Rehab Companies Kroll BBB Accredited Yes Yes BBB Rating A+ A Level of Assistance Complete Restoration Complete Restoration Credit Reports Credit Score Credit Monitoring $35.98 $16.99 $34.50 2 2 2 0 4 2 Identity Rehab Intersections TrustedID Lifelock Yes Yes Yes A+ A B $29.90 $25.98 2 2 0 0 Equifax Trilegiant Yes No A+ B+

Address Change Monitoring Other Monitoring Fraud Alerts Credit Card Opt- Out Lost Wallet Assistance SPAM Email Opt- Out Junk Mail Opt-Out Spyware Protection Telemarketing Opt- Out Medical Information Bureau Report SSN Statement Sex Offender Report Phone Consultations for ANY matter Letters Written or Phone Calls Made on Your Behalf for ANY matter Contract and Document Review Motor Vehicle Legal Services Trial Defense Assistance IRS Audit Assistance 24/7 Emergency Access Complimentary Preparation of your Will Complimentary

Preparation of your Health Care Power of Complimentary Preparation of your Physician s Directive Member Discount Towards All Other Legal Services THE WHOLE SKINNY Best overall value. Coverage for identity theft and many other everyday legal issues as well. Access to attorneys and licensed investigators for the most comprehensive protection available including professional identityrestoration. One of only two companies in the country that provide complete identity restoration. Good service, just a bit too pricey for the amount of overall services provided. Decent monitoring and related services, but help and warranty is very limited for victims. Does not actually do the work to restore your identity, only provides limited assistance. A great price, but you get what you pay for. No credit monitoring. Only limited resolution. Certainly better than nothing but weak where it really counts. In early 2010, LifeLock's misleading coverage and business practices earned them a $12 million FTC fine. Learn more atlifelockexposed.co m Good credit reports and credit monitoring, but identity theft is much more than financial. This service does not address the most problematic areas Poor. * Certain services are included only by select retailers or independent associates directly, not by the underwriting companies. Ask your representative for details. ** Level of Assistance. The Whole Skinny defines Complete Restoration as a service that actually does the work on your behalf to restore your identity, and as one that only helps the member through the process. Protection from identity theft is critical but don t get milked by a poor service! Our ratings seek to provide a fair, unbiased description and ranking of each service, based on total overall value for an average family of two adults and two children. What surprises most individuals is the amount of time it takes to properly restore a stolen identity 175 hours or more. Buyer beware - most services do not actually do the work on the member s behalf to restore their identity - most only provide assistance. Identity theft is much like a house fire. If your house is burning, you don t want the fire department to show you how to hook up the hose you want them to put out the fire! Make sure the service you have in place actually does the restoration work on your behalf instead of just limited assistance. Here's the WHOLE SKINNY on each service - enjoy! #1 ID Shield + LELP ($36.95/month) This combination of services receives our highest recommendation because of its tremendous overall value. Identity theft is a legal issue and this service provides unparalleled coverage not just for identity theft, but for any other legal issue as well. While everyone knows that attorneys are often needed for identity theft, we love that this service allows members to contact the attorneys about other issues too. It is a combination of several programs including the ID Shield (services provided through Kroll), a Life Events Legal Plan (services provided via Pre-Paid Paid Legal Services), and numerous additional resources provided only through select retailers or independent associates.

New members begin with an identity verification system that requires correct answers to questions only the member would know. Once completed, members receive daily credit monitoring of their Experian credit file (with the option available to add both Equifax and TransUnion monitoring for an additional $3 per month). As to credit reports, most other services solely utilize a free service (www.annualcreditreport.com) to order credit reports on the member s behalf, which is somewhat limited in scope that often does not have a credit score associated with it. This service provides a complete Experian credit report via First American Credco, a personal credit score, and a detailed analysis. What is also different than most other services is what happens if you become a victim of any kind of identity theft actual restoration. When the covered member becomes a victim of any type of identity theft, a licensed private investigator is assigned to your case from Kroll, the world s leading risk consulting company. Kroll maintains the highest possible rating and accreditation (A+) with the Better Business Bureau. The investigator assigned to you handles nearly all of the work on your behalf. You must still do certain things that a service cannot legally do on your behalf such as filing a police report. This is vastly superior to typical resolution services that only assign a specialist to help you through the process. The investigator works on your behalf with credit card companies, financial institutions, all three credit repositories, Federal Trade Commission, Social Security Administration, DMV, US Postal Service, law enforcement personnel and any other organizations that may be affected. Fraud alert notifications are sent on your behalf to all three credit repositories, SSA, FTC, USPS, and affected credit card companies and financial institutions. Further, proactive searches of applicable local and national databases are made on your behalf to look for information you may not be aware of including criminal activity in your name, DMV records, unknown addresses, and fraudulent banking activity. A spouse, as well as all household minors, are all included. The service provides valuable material on credit education for minors, advice on best practices for the use of a child s SSN and personal identifying information, and more. The service will monitor for the existence of a credit file and notify you should anything be found. The same licensed private investigators are available to address any issues regarding child identity theft on your behalf. Members are also provided with the resources to reduce prescreened credit card offers, SPAM email, junk mail, and telemarketing calls, view their Medical Information Bureau file, view their SSA earnings statement, order their credit reports, check their credit score anytime, and view registered sex offender reports in their area all completely free. When combined with a Life Events Legal Plan (LELP), the overall value increases significantly, because the additional legal benefits need not have anything to do with identity theft. All members receive access to top rated law firms for a variety of free or discounted legal services provided via the largest legal services provider in North America, PPLSI, which also maintains the highest possible rating and accreditation with the Better Business Bureau (A+). While services do vary by state because of licensing limitations, residents of most states will receive free services such as the ability to contact an attorney for advice on any issue even personal, business, or pre-existing issues. Again, it need not have anything to do with identity theft whatsoever. The attorneys will review contracts or documents (up to 10 pages per contract) at no charge. The attorneys can also place phone calls or write letters on your behalf to help you deal with difficult circumstances or situations no charge. The attorneys will even prepare a will, health care power of attorney (living will), and physician s directive for the primary member and spouse completely free of charge. Each year, upon request, the attorney will update the primary member s documents for free. Spouse annual will updates are only $20. How important is it to have these documents properly prepared by an attorney? In our opinion, this benefit alone pays for the membership. The law firm will also assist with moving traffic violations at no additional cost. Additionally, the law firm will defend all covered family members if charged with manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, or vehicular homicide. Plus, members receive up to 2.5 hours for help with damage recovery, driver s license assistance, and personal injury legal expenses at no additional cost. Included as well at no cost, members receive 60 hours of your law firm s time for trial defense if a covered member is named defendant or respondent in a covered civil or job-related criminal action filed in court. Each year, for the first five years, the number of hours on your trial defense bank increase as well. Members also receive up to 50 hours of law firm s time if they are audited by the IRS. Members even receive access to attorneys 24/7 at no charge for emergency situations. For any other legal event or issue not specifically indicated above, members will receive a 25% discount from the law firm s standard rate. These include, but are not limited to, divorce, child custody, adoption, name change, DUI, etc.

Features, benefits, and prices vary by state. Discounted rates are available when offered as an optional or fringed employee benefit. Because of the volume, quality, and value of legal and identity theft services provided, in tandem with the underwriting companies (PPLSI and Kroll) maintaining the highest BBB rating and accreditation available, this service earns our highest recommendation. #2 IDWatchdog ($39.90/month does not include children) IDWatchdog begins with an identity verification process to make sure you are you. Then an Identity Profile Report is compiled for the member to help identify potential problems such as incorrect addresses associated with your records. Once your profile is established, the service monitors thousands of databases for your identity each month. If suspicious activity surfaces, an ID SnapShot is taken. This is a compilation of various information associated with your identity such as credit reports, DMV information, criminal checks, sex offender registry, SSN trace, Terrorist Watch List, bankruptcies, liens, and judgments. What we really like about this service is that they provide experts to do most of the work for you, under a limited power of attorney if you become a victim. Only one other product (ID Shield) provides this level of service. Two major items prevent IDWatchdog from obtaining our top recommendation high price and absence of any legal benefits. First, at $39.90 per month for two adults, this service is very expensive, and children are not even included in this rate. Second, the service and its specialists are limited to helping members solely for identity theft. Identity theft is just one of many legal issues commonly faced by everyone, so for that price we would expect a broader range of services and benefits. #3 IdentityGuard ($19.98 - $35.98/month coverage for children not available) IdentityGuard offers three levels of service: Watchful Eye, Extra Caution, and Total Protection. Watchful Eye provides one-bureau credit monitoring, internet surveillance, and credit report and score. The next level, Extra Caution, monitors all three credit bureaus and provides a 3-in-1 credit report with score. The highest level of protection, Total Protection, adds identity monitoring, public record report and monitoring, ID Vault, Mobile Lockbox, PrivacyProtect, ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, and limited insurance coverage. This service provides some nice features that computer users will appreciate such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software, password protection options, and wi-fi encryption options. The service also crawls (monitors) certain internet chat rooms and newsgroups for your personal data. Support specialists are available to help cancel your cards if you lose your wallet, and access to credit education specialists. A very limited $1 million reimbursement policy is provided through Travelers Insurance. It enjoys the highest rating possible with the Better Business Bureau A+. But what happens if you actually become a victim of identity theft? They do not actually do the work to restore your identity. They will give you access to their Identity Theft Recovery Unit for guidance though. Better than nothing, but prepare yourself for a great deal of frustration. #4 TrustedID ($16.99/month) This service focuses solely on identity theft, but offers no assistance for other legal issues or events. IDFreeze features include their promise to alert you if they find your credit card number, SSN, name, address, or bank account number being used on any of the black market internet sites they patrol. In truth, black market internet sites comprise only a fraction of identity theft. While it is helpful to know your information is on a fraudulent site, actually fixing the problem is much more important. While the service promises an On-Call Protection Specialist to help you, it does not offer to actually perform the restoration for you. According to the Arizona General, it takes an average of 607 hours for a victim to restore their identity. So, while some help is better than nothing, we expect typical victims will be disappointed to find this coverage does not actually do the work necessary on their behalf. The protection specialists will help you cancel your credit cards and replace them if you take advantage of their lost wallet protection feature.

The service also provides you with an Identity Theft Score to supposedly gauge your risk of identity theft. In our opinion, any such score is arbitrary and virtually meaningless as identity theft can occur because of an almost limitless number of foreseeable and unforeseeable factors. The service will help you (not do it for you) place fraud alerts if you are at risk of identity theft. Specialists will help you review your medical benefits statement for possible identity fraud. Junk mail and pre-approved credit card offer removal. It enjoys a rating of A with the Better Business Bureau. Members also receive anti-spyware software for up to three computers. Credit reports will be ordered via annualcreditreport.com (a free service you can do yourself). A $1,000,000 warranty is offered, but read carefully as it has significant limits, conditions, and exclusions. #5 LifeLock ($24.50/month - $34.50/month) After losing a federal lawsuit filed against Experian in 2009 for deceptive business practices, LifeLock is attempting to reinvent its service. In addition to their standard protection package, a new service called LifeLock Command Center is also now available. Unfortunately, we maintain the same concerns with LifeLock Command Center as we do with their basic service specifically that LifeLock will only provide help if you become a victim of identity theft due to a defect in their service. A million dollar guarantee is not worth much if the strings attached are so significant as to potentially nullify any help. When you become a victim, it is rare to know how it actually happened. Having to prove to a service you are paying for that it was their fault is the last thing you want to have to deal with when you become a victim of identity theft. Once again, this is another service that only helps you through the process of recovery not a service that actually does the work of restoration on your behalf. LifeLock s basic services search the Web for the illegal commerce of your personal information (erecon) and looks for mailing address changes. It also orders your free annual credit reports on your behalf. If it finds your information being used for certain forms of credit or services, it alerts you. It requests your name be removed from pre-approved credit card offer lists (another item you can do yourself for free) and provides assistance in cancelling and replacing items like credit cards should your wallet be stolen. It enjoys the highest rating possible with the Better Business Bureau (A+). In addition to their basic services, LifeLock s enhanced service (Command Center) actively monitors unregulated internet and file-sharing networks (such as pierto-pier sites) for your personal information, alerts you, and helps protect you. It also scans for any payday loan activity using your personal information. It lists sex offender records for your zip code (another service that you can do yourself for free). It lists postal addresses and possible alternate names associated with your identity found in public records. Finally, it lists court records that match certain personal information from county courts, Departments of Corrections, offices of Administration of Courts and other legal agencies. This can potentially help identify criminals using your identity to commit crimes. In summary, while LifeLock continues to be an expert self-promoter and marketer, we feel it falls short when it comes to what really matters cleaning up the mess in which victims find themselves. While its various services do a decent job at attempting to proactively prevent certain types of identity theft from happening, the sad truth is that this crime is just not preventable. Monitoring of various databases is great, but finding a problem is only the beginning of the problem. What is most important is to have a service in place that actually does the work on your behalf to restore your identity which this service does not promise. More information about LifeLock can be seen at www.lifelockexposed.com #6 Equifax ID Patrol (29.90/month does not include children) This service is a part of Equifax, one of the three main credit bureaus. As such, its benefits seem to focus primarily on credit/financial identity theft, which comprises less than 20% of the crime. The member receives credit monitoring of all three bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union) with alerts sent to you. It provides you the ability to lock your Equifax credit report and place fraud alerts. It also scans the internet looking for unauthorized uses of your SSN, debit, or credit cards. You are provided with a 3- in-1 credit report each year and unlimited Equifax credit reports. If you become a victim of identity theft, it provides you a ID Theft Specialist to help you resolve issues. Note they help you through the process, they do not do the work on your behalf.

Their $1 million guarantee, much like that of LifeLock, is quite limited in scope. Very expensive, very limited product. You can do better elsewhere. #7 Wells Fargo ($25.90/month) This service is not actually provided by Wells Fargo. They have subcontracted or outsourced this service to Affinion, also known as Trilegiant, which has a less than stellar record with the Better Business Bureau. When you become a victim of identity theft, be prepared to do a great deal of work on your own because this coverage is very limited. Please direct any questions or comments to wholeskinny@gmail.com