Identity theft is a crime that can happen to anyone. Millions of people each year will become a victim due to dishonest employees, computer hackers, pickpockets, or large companies who disposed of their customer’s files incorrectly. The biggest problem that arises from identity theft is the fact that victims can spend years trying to clean up the mess left by the criminals who stole their information. To deal with these issues, companies like LifeLock have been created.

Launched in 2005, Lifelock has quickly grown into a leading identity theft protection service. Co-founded by Todd Davis (a.k.a. the Guy who Advertises His SSN on National Television and Print) and Robert Maynard, the company, based in Arizona, has had quite a colorful and controversial history worthy of a movie. (More on that later.)

Read a quick review of Lifelock.

After starting his own company "Marketing Champions" Todd Davis met up with Robert Maynard, who was thinking of ways to offer identity theft protection. While Maynard had the idea, he was unsure of how he could put a plan into effect to start the company.

After several meetings with Todd Davis, Maynard decided to make Davis CEO and they agreed to become partners of Lifelock. Robert Maynard thought of creating a company that would help put a stop to identity theft before it occurred.

Lifelock, based in Tempe, Arizona was created as a way to help prevent the crime of identity. While there have been other solutions in the past, these all dealt with ways to help a victim after they have reported that a crime had occurred.

Before Lifelock, the industry of protecting your credit identity was through reactive measures - that is, notifying you of changes in your credit report after it has been made. This is commonly called credit monitoring, and the drawback of course is that it alerts you of an unauthorized changes in your credit after the fact.

Lifelock had the idea of automatically protecting you before a potential identity thief could steal away with a new line of credit in your name. They do this through a process of automatically placing a fraud alert or flag on your report - the idea being that if a criminal posing as you tried to apply for a credit card, the credit agency would see that your file has been flagged. In a perfect world, the credit card company or retail store would deny the supposed "you" from receiving credit.

In reality, the flag is just that - an alert on your file, nothing more. It can be easily ignored, and often greed overides caution - if a commissioned salesperson is about to sell a two thousand dollar plasma television to someone who might look a little shady, a warning may not be enough to deny the sale! That's why Lifelock also offers insurance in case a thief manages to successfully steal your identity anyway.

You can place these fraud alerts on your credit yourself. Phone one of the credit bureaus and request it. By law, the agency you phone must contact the other two main bureaus. However, the credit bureaus erase the alerts on your file every three months - they have to make a profit like any other company.

Alerts deny them from selling your credit information to those who need to check and make sure you can pay back that loan you are applying for - never mind that the "you" applying for it may not really be you!

For a yearly fee, Lifelock will automatically renew your flags so you don't have to phone the credit bureaus every three months.

Fraud Alerts - The major credit bureaus will be asked to put fraud alerts in place on your accounts, and every 90 days, Lifelock will ask them to renew the alerts unless a customer asks them not to.

WalletLock^TM - If your wallet is ever lost or stolen, simply call one number to speak to a Lifelock representative. Lifelock will then contact all the companies associated with the documents in your wallet to alert them of theft, and to cancel and replace them. (To make this work, you have to have given them a list of everything you normally carry in your wallet.) Cash and costs to replace your documents are not included.

Junk Mail - Any mail that is unwanted will eventually slow and then stop as your name will be removed from mailing lists.

$1 Million Total Service Guarantee - If you identity is stolen, Lifelock will do everything they can to fix your good name, at their expense, up to a million dollars.

Pre-approved Credit Card Offers - Offers from the credit card companies can be sent weekly or even daily for some residents and Lifelock will also stop these offers before they reach your mailbox. Credit card offers are generally thrown in the trash and found by criminals.

Credit Reports - These reports can be requested freely once a year, but many consumers are unaware or they don't bother to request them. Lifelock will automatically send these reports from each of the three main credit bureaus so their clients can see what is in their report.

Lifelock has been compared to credit monitoring, but there is a large difference between the two. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are all major credit bureaus that also offer credit monitoring. When you put in a request to get a new credit card, a loan, utility service, insurance or employment, the company looking to issue you new credit will request a copy of your credit report. This request will go into your record, and if the credit application is approved, that too will go into your record.

A credit monitoring service will inform you each time there is a change in your report, either through a query or a new line of credit. If you never recently applied for credit, this is an excellent indication that a thief has your personal information and is using your identity to commit financial fraud.

Lifelock, on the other hand, places and renews the flags on your credit reports to warn credit companies to be extra vigilant and ask for extra identification when dealing with you (or, supposedly you.)

You can request a copy of your credit reports for free once per year, and this request is not added to your report. After the first free copy, you will be charged a fee unless someone has recently refused to give you credit. Keeping an eye on your credit report is essential to making sure that no one somewhere around the world is posing as you.

Todd Davis, a graduate of Baylor University, was a top sales performer for Dell and founded a marketing company called Marketing Champions. He was approached by Lifelock, then in its start-up stage, who were trying to figure out how to market their new product. Todd, who agreed to become CEO, thought up a unique advertising campaign that featured himself giving away his social security number to the world. Davis said that this was a way to show that he believed in the security of Lifelock and the services that it offers.

In television commercials, on the side of buses and on billboards, everyone could see his real social security number. It created huge media buzz and pretty well made Lifelock the top company of identity theft protection services overnight. He still uses his SSN today, even though there have been several attempts to use his number, with one of them succeeding - a payday loan company accepting Todd's number didn't bother to do a credit check.

Todd's SSN is 457-55-5462

Robert Maynard Jr. appears to be an enigma who falls from grace whenever he reaches the top. Born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1962, Maynard attended Brophy College Preparatory before moving on to Arizona State University after his graduation. After joining and then leaving the U.S. Marines with an honorary discharge, Maynard went to Northern Arizona University and founded Internet America, an internet service provider in the late 90's.

As part of the marketing for Lifelock, Robert Maynard used his story of being an identity theft victim, saying that he wrongfully spent a week in jail when an identity thief used his information for a $16,000 casino loan and failed to pay it back. It was in the jail cell that he thought about creating Lifelock. It is a timeless horror story of the fears of being wrongfully accused, and many identity theft victims have been sent to jail for crimes committed by other people.

However ...

A story by the Phoenix New Times shined a very harsh light on his past, detailing his other business dealings, such as multiple personal bankruptcies and a court ruling forcing him to close a credit repair company he founded, called National Credit Foundation, due to deceptive practices.

The story of his week in jail was also questioned when it was revealed that the Las Vegas casino loan did belong to Maynard. No identity theft there.

If that wasn't enough, there are also allegations that he actually committed identity theft, applying for a credit card and piling up debt in his father's name (who is also Robert.)

Due to all the controversies involving his past, he resigned from the company in August 2007.

Critics have complained that too much information is needed when you first sign up for the service. We are told repeatedly that certain information should be given sparingly, like our social security number, but to get the service Lifelock requires it. Some feel that it would be easy for one of their employees to steal the identities of millions of clients who use Lifelock. They also point out that there are no safe computers, as they are all susceptible to hacking.

The biggest criticism comes from those who say that consumers do not need Lifelock. The services offered can be done for free by any consumer who wishes to use them. Todd Davis agrees, pointing out that everything Lifelock does you can do youself. However, people sign up for the convenience of having someone else take the time to re-register the fraud alerts.

What You Can Do Yourself

Fraud Alerts - You can call any of the credit reporting companies and request that a fraud alert be placed on your file. Some people consider this move worthless because it won't help unless a company looks at your credit report. A consumer can also find it hard to get credit with the fraud alert in effect. Your alert will expire in 90 days, and you have to phone to have it placed back on. If you are an identity theft victim, you can request an extended fraud alert, which will keep it in place for up to seven years.

Lifelock says that although this is free, many consumers forget to renew their alerts, leaving their credit reports unprotected, which is why they offer to keep track of fraud alerts for their customers.

Credit Card Offers - Lifelock promises to get your name removed from pre-approved credit card and insurance companies but this can be done by anyone if they simply visit https://www.optoutprescreen.com and have this done for free.

Annual Credit Report - The law states that you can request one free credit report each year from each of the three main credit bureaus. The only place you can do this is through http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

In February 2008, Lifelock was sued by the credit reporting company Experian. In their lawsuit, Experian has accused Lifelock of overusing the fraud alert feature because they automatically renew it every 90 days on behalf of their customers and clients. Experian is also accusing them of charging for the service when any consumer can have it done for free. The credit reporting agencies says that they are losing millions of dollars due to the fraud alerts that they have to keep putting in place.

Lifelock says that the credit reporting agencies are trying to squirm around the laws to shut down identity theft protection companies, so that they can continue to make money when they sell the personal information of its consumers. This battle has been going on for a few years between the credit bureaus, who stand to lose millions of dollars if their reports on customers can not be sold to financial companies, and companies such as Lifelock, who say the credit bureaus are doing nothing to protect their customers.

You can read the full story here.