—normal precautions didn’t stop criminals from stealing thousands—

CHANDLER, AZ, February 28, 2006 — Former Chandler Police Chief Bobby Joe Harris spent more than 30 years protecting his community. He was trained at the FBI National Academy and other elite law enforcement schools, and knew how to protect himself. Always part of solving crimes, but never a victim: that all changed in late January when his name was added to the long list of identity theft victims. Now Harris and his wife have turned to LifeLock to protect them from any future ID theft problems.

“This might sound strange, but we were lucky,” said Harris. “All this occurred in a little over a month and we discovered the fraudulent use of our identity and credit history before it became a major disaster. We had to get our problems corrected ourselves with the credit card company and credit bureaus, though we felt we shouldn’t have to. Being in law enforcement for over 35 years and my wife being in banking for the same amount of time, we went into the investigative mode to find something that would not let this happen again. A friend told us about LifeLock and after we looked at a number of companies, we found that LifeLock had the best product that covered all the aspects we wanted.”

The adventure began for Harris when an individual working for the local Sam’s Club canceled his wife’s membership/credit card and replaced it with a stolen identity name. The criminal used a false address and telephone number which even changed the address on their credit history. She increased the credit card limit several times up to $15,000 and charged more than $11,000 in the matter of a few days.
 
The crime was discovered when his wife was denied service at Sam’s Club. Someone at the store informed her that her husband had canceled her card and he was the only one who could reactivate it.  When the Harrises’ went into the store to reactivate the card, they found out about the fraud. The store told them the card had not been used and, being a retired police officer, Harris was suspicious and decided to check.
 
Harris and his wife ran a credit report that revealed more than $11,000 had been charged to that account and that the address had been changed. Harris immediately called the Sam’s Club loss prevention agent in Arizona who told him that he believed Harris had compromised his own personal information. Knowing that was not possible, Harris then e-mailed Sam’s Club headquarters and was informed that the store had an internal problem which resulted in the compromise of information. Furthermore, the company confirmed that they knew about the problem for nearly a month and never did anything to correct it. 
 

“We have heard stories similar to Bobby Joe’s much too often,” noted LifeLock CEO Todd Davis. “While we didn’t know that they had signed up for our service until we read about it in the local paper, we are excited that someone with his credentials would see us as the one true preventative answer to ID Theft.”

LifeLock, based in Chandler, Arizona, is the nation’s first and only ID theft prevention company. Specializing in stopping the crime rather than reimbursement afterward, LifeLock takes the burden, fear and worry out of the consumers’ hands.

The unique company uses a system of “locks” on a consumer’s identity in such a way that it cannot be used by anyone except its rightful owner. The service uses a combination of tactics that include locking up all information, setting and maintaining alerts, forcing banks to contact people directly before issuing credit and removing a member from pre-approved credit card lists. LifeLock’s system is so effective that the company offers a $1 million guarantee to cover any expenses and legal fees if a problem ever should occur.

“I wish we would have known about LifeLock before all this happened to us,” added Harris. “Our experience has been told on TV and in newspapers throughout Arizona. Daily I have people who recognize me say “If you have been a victim, how can we ever protect ourselves?” I tell them being a client of LifeLock brings a peace of mind we never thought we would need. I was one of the people who said something like this would never happen to me. I was wrong but it will never happen again.”

The subscription fee for standard LifeLock service is $10 per month or $110 per year. The company also offers subscribers a specially designed Children’s ID Theft Prevention Program for $10 per year. For more information, visit www.LifeLock.com.