What's interesting about data breaches reported in August 2008 is the extent of breaches in foreign countries. The largest and most disturbing breach may affect many Americans as well. According to the Sunday Herald of the UK an investigation has discovered that

"a previously unknown Indian hacker successfully breached the IT defences of the Best Western Hotel group's online booking system and sold details of how to access it through an underground network operated by the Russian mafia."

The personal and private information of over 8,000,000 people who had stayed at the Best Western since 2007 was stolen. Security expert Jacques Erasmus, an ex-hacker who now works for the computer security firm Prevx, had this to say

"They've pulled off a masterstroke here, there are plenty of hacked company databases for sale online but the sheer volume and quality of the information that's been stolen in the Best Western raid makes this particularly rare. The Russian gangs who specialise in this kind of work will have been exploiting the information from the moment it became available late on Thursday night. In the wrong hands, there's enough data there to spark a major European crime wave."

Identity Theft Labs has reported often that the major criminal syndicates are becoming increasing involved in identity theft and though the Russian Mafia was one of the first you can expect that others groups will join in, if they haven't already.

The Best Western wasn't the only foreign breach. The Ireland Department of Social and Family Affairs compromised the private and financial information of 380,000 people when a laptop was stolen. The Royal Bank of Scotland was one party involved in the data breach that saw a hard drive, containing personal information and account details of approximately one million people, sold on Ebay. The Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology compromised the private information of thousands of South Korean officials via the internet. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK. through a number of data breaches, exposed the confidential information of up to 62,000 people.

Though we tend to focus on American data breaches it is important to realize that this is not an American problem but a worldwide problem. Most countries, like some of our States, don't even require reporting of these incidents. It is only when you consider that what we are seeing is merely the tip of the iceberg that you start to realize the extent of the problem the world is facing. Identity theft is not going to go away so, if you haven't already, it would be wise to implement an identity protection plan today.

Here is a list of American breaches reported in August by Attrition.org. Please visit their site for direct links to the initial articles.

Reynoldsburg Ohio City School District
Stolen laptop contains names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of 4,259

Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund
Records of 13,000 retired police compromised in database

Prince William Co. Public Schools
Confidential information for more than 2,600 exposed through file sharing program

Pennsylvania Public Welfare Department
2,845 welfare renewal packets sent to wrong mailing addresses

National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Social Security numbers, names, and dates of birth for at least 12,700 on stolen laptop

Louisiana Real Estate Commission
13,000 Social Security numbers and other personal information posted on the internet

PA Consulting / The Home Office
Contractor loses data on tens of thousands criminals

The Princeton Review
Information about 34,000 students and 74,000 students containing names and birth dates

Kingston Tax Service
Stolen laptop contains personal information for an unknown number of clients

Dominion Enterprises / InterActive Financial Marketing Group IFMG
Names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth of 92,095 on hacked server

Wuesthoff Medical Center
Names, social security numbers and medical information of over 500 posted to web

Charter Communications
Social Security numbers and dates of birth of 9,000 on stolen laptops

Harris County Hospital District
Financial and medical of 1,200 downloaded to flash drive later reported missing

Arapahoe Community College
15,000 notified about lost flash drive containing names, addresses, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers

Countrywide Financial Corp.
Insider possibly compromises 2,000,000 records, including Social Security numbers, of mortgage applicants

Delphi Automotive / Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Missing flash drive contains Social Security numbers of about 2,600

Barclays Bank PLC
Account details sent to thousands in mailing error

Graphic Data, Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, American Express
Drive purchased on eBay contains personal and account details of around one million

One thing is for certain, these data breaches are not going to end anytime soon. In fact, they may never end. This is why it is important to start protecting yourself from identity theft. Identity theft protection can be done on your own or by utilizing a complete service like LifeLock or TrustedID. The important thing to realize is that our personal information, credit and finances, and indeed our identities are no longer safe. Anything you can do to protect your identity is a step in the right direction. Far too many Americans fail to take any action at all and many still remain oblivious to the reality of this horrible crime. Educate yourself, share your knowledge with others and encourage each other to take action. Lets keep our money out of the hands of criminals and mafia groups, wherever they reside, and in the hands of honest hard working Americans.

You hear about it all the time—identity theft and the victims that deal with it.

Identity theft is growing every day, and is becoming quite the epidemic with the growth and popularity of online shopping, social networking sites, and the numerous uses of a person’s social security number. Add in poor security measures at institutions, a growing number of hackers and the new work from home lifestyle that has resulted in far too many stolen laptops and you get a recipe for disaster.

How do you protect yourself from identity theft?

Well, you could spend tons of time and money pulling your credit report each month and scoping out any unusual activity. By pulling your credit report and reviewing it, activity has already occurred by this time. Credit monitoring comes with a monthly fee similar to other identity protection services but it still only lets you know after the fact about any unusual activity. Wouldn’t you be better off being proactive about protecting your identity, rather than spending numerous hours on the phone with creditors and faxing paperwork back and forth explaining that you’ve been a victim of identity theft and didn’t rack up all those charges?

Most would rather take the steps to initially avoid identity theft. What you have to do then is contact each of the credit bureaus to place fraud alerts on your account. Of course, fraud alerts only go for 90 days before they expire, and you have to start the whole process over again being careful to not miss your renewal date. But with so many busy families, who has the time?

Many Americans don’t! Life is hectic these days, especially if you have kids. A lot of us would rather have someone else do the work of watching their credit instead of depending on themselves to do so. This way there is no lapse in your credit protection due to a missed or late fraud alert renewal. And for a measly average of $9 a month, it is very affordable especially when you consider the costs and headaches involved in fixing the problem and the additional benefits you get by employing a service.

With professionals hired you also get additional services many of which you can not do on your own. You can remove yourself from junk mail and pre-approved credit offers, highly recommended by the way, but most companies also provide scanning of black market internet sites that sell your information and database monitoring. If your private information is found, anywhere it shouldn’t be, you are immediately notified. Most importantly, these services give you a service guarantee and/or identity theft insurance which is a must have given the scope of identity theft.

There are many companies out there offering identity theft protection. LifeLock, TrustedID, and Debix are just a few of the services out there to help you protect your credit and good name. Each of these companies are experienced and are the best of the best in our opinion, Of course, each one has their unique services, but for the most part, they will monitor your current credit and personal information and make sure you are contacted as new accounts are being open to make sure it is you requesting the loan, and if not, allowing you to take action immediately to stop the transaction rather than fixing the damage later.

If you’re worried about identity theft, these services will help keep your mind at ease knowing that someone is watching over your information with an eagle eye, so you have time for the more important things in life. Take the time now to review the services offered by these companies. It is far easier to set up an identity protection plan then go through the horror of fixing your credit.

Some interesting identity theft articles came out this week from various newspapers across the country. Here are some quick highlights of these articles.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that 5 of 9 retailers involved in the nations largest identity theft ring bust, in which computer hackers swiped more than 40 million credit card numbers, did not inform their consumers of the data breach. Currently 40 states have passed laws requiring that consumers affected by a data breach be notified. There were differing reasons for not reporting, ranging from we could not find the breach to we had no idea which customers were effected. Irregardless, the FBI was able to find out about the breach and if you don't know what customers were affected then you should inform all of them that their information may have been compromised.

Identity Theft Labs has known for some time that companies are reluctant to report data breaches due to bad press and possible stock devaluation but when you look at the amount of money TJ Maxx paid to settle lawsuits brought forth by banks and consumers, $202 million, one has to wonder if silence is in the stock holders best interest. Perhaps if our laws had more teeth and penalized non-reporting institutions, then the penalty coupled with the threat of a lawsuit would give corporations the additional incentive or reason to report a breach.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that identity theft is growing rapidly in California, citing a report that states that identity theft complaints to local authorities increased by 31%, and that gangs including the Crips, Mexican Mafia and Armenian Power gang are partially responsible for this increase. Referring to court documents they site examples of the involvement of these gangs in identity theft schemes. An identity theft ring with ties to the Long Beach Insane Crips used check cashing schemes to steal $238,000 and a subsequent bust in 2006 turned up computers, paperwork for taking on false identities and, of course, guns. A group of 5, affiliated with Armenian Power, used fake keypads at ATM's to capture account information and passwords and then proceeded to wipe the bank accounts of over 120 honest Americans clean. The Mexican Mafia was also tied to the theft of 5,000 Social Security numbers. Fortunately, these gangs haven't become too sophisticated, yet.

The San Francisco Chronicle had a short article on home equity loans and how they are a potential gold mine for identity thieves. Referring to a report from the Identity Theft Assistance Center, a nonprofit industry group that says identity thieves are targeting people with good credit as they have large amounts of unused equity in their homes, the S.F. Chronicle advised readers to check their credit report often and to consider purchasing identity theft protection. The article also pointed out that the FBI's annual mortgage fraud report cited home equity credit fraud as an "emerging scheme" and that home equity credit lines are easy to open if you have the right (stolen) information.

Unfortunately, as this sample indicates, the identity theft crisis Americans are experiencing is not going to end anytime soon. More criminals, gangs, and identity theft rings seem to choose identity theft as an option every week even though punishments have increased. Is it is just too financially rewarding for them to pass up? Add the fact that companies are often too scared or embarrassed to report breaches, the ability to steal from Americans from far away countries and our poorly regulated credit industry and what you get is a recipe for disaster. Indifference is not the answer. Educate yourself and others and start protecting your identity today before you too contribute to some criminals well being.

Finally good news on the identity theft prevention front. Eleven perpetrators involved in an international identity theft ring that compromised 9 major US retailers have been charged with numerous offenses including conspiracy, fraud and identity theft. Of those indicted on charges, only 3 were American with the other 8 coming from Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus and China. Together, they were responsible for the sale of more than 40 million debit and credit card numbers. This is the same group responsible for the data breaches at TJX Companies(T.J. Maxx), Barnes & Noble, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Sports Authority, Forever 21, Boston Market and DSW. The three year investigation involved numerous government departments including the U.S. Secret Service, Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs and numerous U.S. Attorney offices.

What seems odd about this identity theft ring is its international flavor and non-existing ties to larger criminal organizations. One has to wonder how these 11 people hooked up, though it may easily be explained by their participation in one of many black market internet sites that routinely sell credit and debit cards, Social Security numbers, and bank account information. See the Dateline MSNBC video To Catch an ID Thief on our homepage for more on this.

Furthermore, this was not a very tech operation. They received access to these companies by driving around looking for unprotected wireless connections. They didn’t need an expert hacker, they just uploaded “sniffer” programs that captured all the debit, credit and bank account information as well as the passwords that went along with them. They then loaded blank cards with the debit or credit card information and started withdrawing funds. It is unclear how much they received in total but the indictment of one identity thief alleges he received proceeds from crime exceeding $11 million.

Three of the thieves were also charged in a separate indictment for the data breach at Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain in which 5,000 credit and debit cards were compromised resulting in losses of $600,000 to the financial institutions involved. Can you imagine the losses they received for the 97 million card numbers captured in the T.J. Maxx fiasco. Now you know why the banks sued and TJX Companies settled out of court. The VISA settlement alone was for $40.9 million and without doubt it opened the eyes of companies and organizations across America and spurred them to protect their wireless communications. Unfortunately, data breaches still continue daily from hackers, lost and stolen laptops or backup tapes, and due to employee or corporation incompetence.

It is amazing that 11 criminals from around the world can do so much damage to the American economy. If identity theft isn’t addressed further by individuals and corporations the cost to the American economy, pegged at about $50 Billion a year, will continue to have devastating results. Governments can only do so much. Americans themselves must pressure those who we entrust with our private information to take all security precautions. As it stands now financial decisions are taking place that prevent full security procedures from being implemented. Unfortunately this will continue to cost all of us, and will cause undue hardship and stress to many of the 10 million innocent people who will fall victim to identity theft this year and every year. Are you doing all you can to protect you family?

Data breaches for July 2008 were relatively minor in terms of total Americans affected though the actual number of breaches continued the normal trend. The only breach affecting more than 100,000 Americans was Blue Cross Blue Shield from Georgia who exposed 202,000 people by sending letters, containing personal and medical information to wrong addresses. A small percentage also included Social Security numbers.

The education field continued its dominance in the number of breaches reported. This is likely more of a compliance factor as an educational facility is more likely to report than a business. A study of 500 data breach investigation from 2004 -2007 by Verizon Business Security Solutions showed that only 5% of breaches were reported. A recent survey of 300 RSA Conference attendees showed that 89% of data breaches went unreported.

Companies that do report a breach generally offer absolutely no identity protection. A few are taking the limited step of offering 1 free year of credit monitoring, while it seems rare for a company to provide, for free, the services of a fraud alert company such as LifeLock, Debix or TrustedID. Companies often take the position that although they lost your private data it is not at risk since no one has reported to them its use in an attack against their identity. If they are to chose a fraud alert company over credit monitoring they would, in fact, be saying that their breach put you at risk for identity theft or fraud.

The following is a sample, from attition.org, of data breaches reported in July. For the full list and links to the corresponding article please visit their site at http://attrition.org/dataloss/#2008.

• AnheuserBusch
  Stolen laptop exposes Social Security numbers,home addresses and marital status of former and current employees.

  Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center
  128,000 notified about possible database intrusion

  Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
  Names, addresses, birth dates, driver licenses and Social Security numbers of 55,000 organ donors exposed.

  Missouri National Guard
  Personal information of about 2,000 soldiers breached.

  Wagner Resource Group
  Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and names of about 2,000 exposed through peertopeer file sharing.

  Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
  Social Security numbers of almost 4,700 posted to web.

  Village of Tinley Park, Illinois
  Lost backup tape contains Social Security numbers of 20,400.

  Yan Chai Hospital
  Lost backup disks contain 3,000 names and identity card numbers.

  BristolMyers Squibb
  Names, addresses, and Social Security numbers on stolen backup tape.

  Clark County Nevada District Court
  Names, addresses, Social Security numbers and birth dates of 380 released by email.

  Baptist Health
  1,800 notified about breach of system records including names and Social Security numbers.

  LPL Financial
  Hackers potentially able to access names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 10,219.

  Educational Facilities

  Connecticut College
  Hacked server contains names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of about 2,800 library users.

  University of Houston
  Social Security numbers and names of 259 posted to the web for over two years.

  Hillsborough Community College
  Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and routing numbers of 2,000 stored on stolen laptop.

  Indiana State University
  Personal information of about 2,500 on stolen laptop.

  University of Nebraska at Kearney
  2,035 notified about names and Social Security numbers on hacked computers.

  University of Texas at Austin
  Social Security numbers of about 2,500 exposed on internet.

  University of Maryland
  Social Security numbers of 23,000 visible on mailing labels.

  University of Texas at Dallas
  Network attack exposes Social Security numbers, names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers of 9200

  Williamson County TN Schools
  Names and Social Security numbers of 4,000 posted to web.

With only 5 - 11% of data breaches being reported it is easy to see that the astonishing number of breaches we hear about is only the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully, this will change as more pressure is put on companies to follow existing regulations and as more States enact legislation requiring reporting. Perhaps, politicians will have the foresight to enforce credit protection for affected Americans as well. Until that time it up to you to protect yourself and your family from becoming victims of identity theft. Don't sit idly by when your personal and private information is compromised. Identity theft protection is reasonably priced and well worth the peace of mind, time savings, and financial security it provides. Explore our site to learn more about your options for protecting your families good name.

We all hear from the media, both online and off-line, about all the data breaches, hackers, stolen laptops and the Nigerian credit card scams but few of us hear the other story about identity theft. The other story may not be as glamorous and it may not make headlines but it is a reality and for the most part it remains untold. The following is a look at the darker side of identity theft, a side that many victims are aware of but the general public remains oblivious to.

The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has conducted studies over the last 5 years using victims who have reported to them about their identity theft case. These volunteers have filled out surveys and shared their stories for our benefit. Some very disturbing information was revealed in these studies and one of the most prominent was eluded to with our headline - Identity Thieves May Be Closer to Home Than You Think.

Approximately one-third of victims in the ITRC 2007 study reported that their attack was initiated by someone they knew such as a family member, friend, co-worker or acquaintance. It can also be someone they had prior dealings with whether it be business or personal. No, not the waitress who scanned your credit card to sell it out the back door. More like your business partner, financial planner, barber or babysitter. The point is, it is someone who you know and who knows intimate details about you. Shocking yes, reality yes.

Identity theft has become big business and financially desperate people have been known to act irrationally and to involve themselves in what seems to be easy money. Some may have hopes of paying off the debt before you realize but most are just in it for the money, your money. About 95% of identity theft cases are financially related with 78% of cases being strictly financial. The difference is made up of combinations such as financial and criminal 7% and financial and governmental 9%.

Need further proof that the perpetrator is often not some unknown seasoned criminal. Lets take a look at what respondents to the ITRC studies had to say on the identity theft of children. Yes, children. They too are often victims, even the young ones with about 18% of child victims being under the age of five. According to respondents in the 2007 survey, the thief was a parent, step parent or both parents in 47% of the cases. Furthermore, in an additional 12% of the cases the identity thief was a family member. Now you can see why we advised long ago to be extra cautious during cases of divorce, marital problems, financial problems, and with drug addicted or unstable family members.

As sad as it is, it is often those who are close to us who will end up attacking our precious children. Can you imagine little Michael having a mortgage, or receiving a lawsuit for unpaid bills addressed to Emily, your toddler. Unbelievable that this can happen but it does, and it happens a lot more frequently than you think to everyday good citizens. So when your neighbor or friend comments how outrageous it is that you are spending the time or money to protect your child, don't take their advice. It is not only a reality it is one of the fastest growing areas of identity theft.

As you can see an identity thief is often closer to home than you think especially when it comes to children. Be careful who you trust and take the time to explore our site to learn more about how you can protect yourself and your loved ones.

Our new TrustedID promotion is good news for consumers looking to protect their identity. Why even last month their service was selling at a regular price of $155 though we were promoting it at a $45 dollar savings. Still, that’s a lot compared to their new permanent price reduction to $99 dollars and their new limited time offer promotion of 10% off, bringing the total price for TrustedID's service to $90. Dinner once a month at a fast food restaurant costs you that much.

TrustedID continues to make headway in the identity protection market by continuously improving their offer. Their recent promotion is an example of their competitiveness as they go head to head with industry leader LifeLock. TrustedID’s new advertisements are going to bode well for the young company and Identity Theft Labs highly endorses their services.

Consider that Trusted ID has a family plan that includes protection for everyone in the family including grandparents so long as all family members reside at the same residence. Think about that for a second. A family of five, say 3 adults and two children, can be protected from identity theft for $190. But wait, with our new TrustedID Promotion code, it is now only $171. Now that is a great deal, in fact, there are no coupons, discounts or offers from any company that is better.

To get this great deal just visit TrustedID.com by using any of our links or type promotion code "ZQF9796" in to the appropriate box and you will see your price update reflecting the 10% savings. Remember, this is a limited time offer and one of the best identity protection services available. Don't wait till you’re under attack, be proactive and stop identity theft before it occurs.

TrustedID now has the total package. They always had a great service but this new offer is what makes their total package truly appealing. All you have to do is use our TrustedID promotion code and you will get the protection you need and deserve. Why not put your mind at ease knowing everything is taken care of for you by professionals. Visit TrustedID now and take advantage of their special offer.

Data breaches in June were a bit slower than this years previous months but still left far too many Americans seeking identity theft protection. In fact, if the 2.2 million billing records, which included 1.3 million Social Security numbers, weren't lost on stolen data tapes at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics this would have been a slow month indeed, maybe not in terms of the number of breaches but at least in the number of Americans affected. Of note is the continued trend of a high number of data breaches at educational institutions. What's more disturbing than the number of occurrences each month is the disproportional number of educational breaches compared to corporate breaches. Is this due to the fact that they are actually obeying the law and reporting? Do businesses turn a blind eye to breaches for fear of negative publicity or legal retribution or do they just have better security, policies and procedures. Perhaps this is a discussion worth pursuing in another article. If it is of interest to you please let us know. For now, here is a short summary of data breaches reported in June and compiled by www.attrition.org. Please visit their site for further information including links to original articles.

Montgomery Ward
Hacked database results in loss of 51,000 credit card numbers

Texas Department of Public Safety
Private Information and Social Security numbers 826 employees stolen from contracted company

California Department of Consumer Affairs
Insecure electronic transmission of 5000 names and Social Security numbers

CNET Networks
Stolen computers put at risk the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers of over 6,500 people

Virgin Media
Lost an unencrypted CD containing bank account details of 3,000 customers

Connecticut Department of Labor
Lost documents containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers of about 2,100

Castlecroft Medical Practice
Stolen laptop containing names, addresses, dates of birth, and medical information puts 11,000 people at risk of identity theft

Texas Insurance Claims Services
Hundreds of names, addresses and Social Security numbers on files found in dumpster

AT&T
Stolen laptop exposes employee names, salary and Social Security numbers

Medisure
Tapes stolen containing thousands of employee names, addresses and medical details

University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics
Stolen data tapes contains 2.2 million billing records including 1.3 million Social Security numbers

1st Source Bank
Replaced debit cards for an unknown number of customers due to security risk

Cotton Traders
Website hacked and credit card details of 38,000 customers stolen

Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Private information including Social Security numbers found on "non-secure computer network"

Petroleum Wholesale
Files with names, addresses and debit and credit card numbers found in dumpster

Educational Breaches

Stanford University
Stolen laptop containing personal information puts 72,000 at risk of identity theft

Southeast Missouri State University
Former employee indicted for possessing 800 student names and Social Security numbers

Columbia University
Social Security numbers of 5,000 readily available on internet

Dickson County TN Board of Education
Stolen laptop exposes names and Social Security numbers of 850

University of Florida
Social Security numbers, names, and addresses of 11,300 accidentally posted online

University of South Carolina
Stolen computer containing personal information puts at 7,000 at risk

East Tennessee State University
Stolen computer containing personal information puts 6,200 at risk of identity theft

Oregon State University
Online orders of as many as 4,700 possibly compromised

So what should you do if you receive a letter in the mail informing you that your personal information has been compromised? What you need to do is start educating yourself about identity theft and learn about the different options you have to protect yourself. Read our article, Identity Protection - Do I Really Need It?, for some great advice. At the very least you should place a fraud alert yourself and monitor your credit report both of which can be done for free. Consider a credit freeze if you don't need access to your credit. Explore our website and those of our partners LifeLock, LoudSiren, TrustedID and Identity Guard. All bring unique offerings to the table and each is respected in the industry. Identity protection is not that expensive and it is nice to have the peace of mind of a guarantee. Remember, your identity is your most precious possession, so protect it and keep your good name belonging to you.

NameSafe, an identity protection company headquartered in Nashville Tennessee, filed suit on Wednesday in Tennessee against their competitor LifeLock. The suit alleges various violations of Trademark Laws and the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. At issue is the allegation that LifeLock bid on the keyword 'namesafe' in major search engines and according to David Ridings, founder and CEO of NameSafe, had the phrase 'Namesafe.com' in the text of their ad. Ridings had this to say in a press release issued by the company.

"We have discovered that LifeLock has been sponsoring advertisements on most major search engines including (among others) Google, Yahoo, Lycos, MSN, Dogpile, and AOL, that deceptively led consumers to Lifelock.com. Specifically, when you searched 'Namesafe.com' in any major search engine, you found an advertisement that said 'Namesafe.com' but when you clicked on it, you were not directed to the official site for NAMESAFE (www.namesafe.com), but rather to our competitor, LifeLock.com. It is one of the most bizarre attempts to steal a company brand and its costumers that I have personally seen."

For those unfamiliar with search engine advertising this is how it works. A consumer types a keyword into the search engine, lets say Google, and Google generally returns two types of results, paid and unpaid. The unpaid results, known in the industry as organic listings, are based on Google's algorithym and are located to the left and center of the page. Paid results, known in the industry as Adwords in Google's case, are located at the top and to the right of your screen and are paid advertisements.

LifeLock paid Google so that their advertisement would show when a consumer searched for 'name safe'. LifeLock wasn't alone in doing this as their main competitor Identity Guard was also bidding on these keywords but Identity Guard never used 'namesafe.com' in their text ad. LifeLock, in an article by Stephen Shankland on CNET, say they did not use Namesafe in their advertisement either. They believe it was one of their 3000 affiliates who did and said they terminated the offending affiliate and warned other affiliates to stop bidding on the keyword 'namesafe'. Identity Theft Labs can attest to the latter as we are a LifeLock affiliate. LifeLock believes the offending URL was www.livelock.com, an ex-affiliate that redirected any clicks on their advertisement directly to www.lifelock.com, the real site. This was done by quite a few affiliates in all types of industries before Google wisely put an end to such redirects by requiring that the visitor be taken to the URL that is displayed in the ad.

IdentityTheftLabs.com has been involved in the identity theft advertisement field for the past 6 months, and it was very common for all identity protection companies to be bidding on each others trademarked keywords until recently. Recently Lifelock started the process of emailing other companies, placing a phone call or sending a letter to have them stop bidding on their trademarked names. Most competitors complied and LifeLock in turn stopped bidding on competitor keywords. Identity Truth is the only competitor still bidding on LifeLock's keyword and even after all this time LifeLock has not filed suit against them.

NameSafe decided to take a different route than LifeLock and filed a lawsuit prior to communicating. This is unusual, as one usually asks for the advertisement to be removed or to have the text changed and if this does not work then a cease and desist letter is sent. It is only after the cease and desist letter is ignored that one would ponder a lawsuit. So why did Namesafe take such a heavy handed action? In a brief chat with Identity Theft Labs, CEO David Ridings said the lawsuit was launched on the advice of his counsel as a cease and desist order may have opened up litigation in Arizona where LifeLock is headquartered. Ridings explained further that they initially contacted Google, about 4-6 weeks ago, and Google's response was that they do not get involved in trademark disputes. Ridings contention isn't that LifeLock was wrong to be bidding on their keyword but that they confused a few of his customers by having 'NameSafe' in the text of their advertisement and as such they felt it was necessary to protect their brand. Nothing wrong with that but since LifeLock says that it was one of their affiliates who created this confusion maybe the two could have saved each other a lot of legal fees by opening up the lines of communication. In the end we expect they will come to an agreement outside of court but the line of communication must be opened first. The question is, who is going to extend their hand first, Ridings or LifeLock CEO Todd Davis.

The fight to be your service provider for identity theft protection has heated up as both TrustedId and Identity Guard have improved their offer. Though LifeLock continues to sign up the strong majority of consumers looking for identity protection these new promotions should have quite a few people checking out the competition.

Identity Guard's Total Service Protection previously had two very effective offers, one that offered the second month for free and another that included Zone Alarm's Internet Security Suite which sells annually for about $50. Identity Guard is now including Zone Alarm in all Total Service Protection promotions and to match LifeLock if offering the first 30 days free. This is a great offer for those who prefer credit monitoring to fraud alerts, and Identity Guard's database scanning and internet protection leaves them in a class of their own when compared to other credit monitoring services.

TrustedId has also improved their offer considerably by lowering their prices and putting together a family identity protection package. The new price of $99 per year puts them in the same range as LifeLock and the LoudSiren Debix team. They also put together a package deal for families offering identity protection to all family members who live at the same residence for $190 annually. This can save a large family quite a bit of money. TrustedID will also include grandparents who are living with you in the package and for any family with three adults this is by far the best offer on the market. These moves have strengthened TrustedID's offer considerably and we expect the new promotion will result in a lot of new customers.

In the last few years identity theft has left a staggering number of victims in its wake and has taken a huge bite out of the American economy with estimates at about $50 billion per year. This will not change quickly as consumers are generally slow to adapt to threats they face especially when it involves their time and money. We do expect to see a decline in the instances and cost of identity theft as more Americans become aware of this horrible crime and decide to take action in terms of protecting themselves and their loved ones. As identity protection companies compete to be your service provider, by strengthening their products and lowering their price, more Americans will avail themselves of their services and the economy and indeed the lives of all Americans will improve as identity theft is reduced drastically.

For more information on any of these companies or the credit protection services they provide please view our identity protection comparison chart.