TEMPE, AZ – (September, 23 2008) – The effects of identity theft are swift and destructive – in a matter of minutes a criminal can completely wipe out a lifetime of good credit standing, leaving behind mountains of debt and a trail of bad spending. Victims are left reeling and face hours, days, or even potentially years worth of phone calls and paperwork to clear their names. A new partnership announced today between AAA Ohio Auto Club and LifeLock®, a proactive identity theft protection service, looks to even the playing field by helping consumers protect themselves from this growing crime.
In the state of Ohio, more than 26,000 people registered an identity theft or fraud complaint in 2007, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. In the last two years, more than a dozen Ohio companies and universities have reported incidents of lost or stolen data impacting more than 630,000 people. The new alliance between LifeLock and AAA Ohio Auto Club gives more than 825,000 members and employees access to vital protection tools with LifeLock’s identity theft protection services at a discounted rate. The LifeLock benefit joins a list of over 150,000 discounts AAA offers at merchant locations worldwide.
“The threat of identity theft is not going away as it continues to be one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States,” says LifeLock CEO Todd Davis. “But through partnerships such as the one we have forged with AAA Ohio Auto Club, we are able to extend our services to even more people, cutting off more roads to identity thieves and empowering consumers to take control of their own identities.”
As the industry leader in identity theft protection, LifeLock requests on behalf of its clients that the national credit bureaus place fraud alerts on its members’ credit files and requests that members’ names be removed from pre-approved credit card offer and junk mail lists. In addition to these proactive identity theft protection measures provided by LifeLock, members are also entitled to LifeLock’s WalletLock™, eRecon™ and TrueAddress™ services. WalletLock works to cancel and replace all documents and personal identifying information inside a wallet if it is lost or stolen. eRecon is a regular patrol of the Internet in search of social security numbers, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers and email addresses of LifeLock members to protect against the information being traded or sold online. LifeLock’s TrueAddress service searches to see if members have had a change-of-address form filed and alert them if there are changes made that they may be unaware of. LifeLock is backed by a $1 million service guarantee.
“We understand the increasing threat that identity theft poses to everyone, and we think it is important to offer our members and employees protection,” said Dave Wood, Vice President of AAA Ohio Auto Club. “The services that LifeLock provides to its members are unparalleled and will offer AAA families in Ohio a sense of security and comfort in knowing that someone will be watching out to protect their identities and good name.”
Americans registered more than 800,000 complaints of fraud and identity theft in 2007. This number of complaints is up from 670,000 complaints in 2006. For the seventh straight year, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States, costing Americans $1.2 billion annually.
Founded in 2005, LifeLock works to close many of the doors identity thieves go through to misuse personal information. Closing in on 1.5 million members, LifeLock has earned multiple awards, including the Red Herring 100 Global Award as one of the Top 100 start-ups in the world. LifeLock was the recipient of two American Business Awards for advertising in 2008, and most recently, garnered an additional award honor for advertising from the International Business Awards. LifeLock representatives are available to assist members 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the company’s secure facility in Tempe, Ariz. LifeLock (www.lifelock.com) is a private company backed by Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, as well as Bessemer Venture Partners.
As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides nearly 51 million members with travel-, insurance-, financial- and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at www.AAA.com.
with the most advanced Identity Theft Protection system available!