That $200 'identity theft protection' service I signed up for paid for exactly nothing

I paid for LifeLock for a full year after that big data breach at Home Depot back in 2014. Found out later my bank already does the same monitoring for free and the only thing they flagged was me applying for a credit card. Anyone else get duped into paying for something your bank already handles?

3 comments

3 Comments

brown.gavin2mo ago

Yeah, I fell for LifeLock too back when Target got hacked. Realized after six months my credit union had the same alerts for free. Feels like these companies are just cashing in on people's fear after all the news about data breaches. The only thing they ever caught was me moving and updating my address with the post office. Complete waste of money, honestly. Just freeze your credit with the three bureaus and you're better off.

lane.eric1mo ago

@rubyk86 brings up a good point about the fine print, but honestly is it even that deep? Freezing your credit is free and takes ten minutes, so why would anyone pay for this stuff unless they're real paranoid?

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rubyk862mo ago

Probably would have saved money just burning that $200 in a campfire at least youd get some warmth out of it. The real scam isnt even that they catch nothing useful but that you have to opt out of their arbitration clause if you even want to sue them for failing to protect you. Most people dont read the fine print where it says they can sell your data too. So youre basically paying them to do the same stuff free services do while they profit off your info. Its a total racket dressed up in a fancy logo.