Anti-identity-theft huckster has had identity stolen at least 13 times

Todd Davis's identity has been stolen at least 13 times. Davis is CEO of LifeLock, a company that sells anti-identity-theft services, and their ads feature Davis's Social Security Number (because their service works so well he can afford to publicize his SSN without being compromised. Collection agencies across the country are trying to get him to cough up for debts that other people have racked up with the SSN they gleaned from the ad.

LifeLock has already been fined $12,000,000 by the FTC for deceptive advertising. The Phoenix New Times has a long, investigative story on LifeLock's business practices and the (in)efficacy of its services. It's a pretty comprehensive look at how to make something that doesn't work very well and compound that with bad business practices.

LifeLock's co-founders, Richard Todd Davis and Robert J. Maynard Jr., told reporters across the country that Maynard had once spent a week in the Maricopa County jail, falsely accused of crimes, because his identity had been stolen. The 2003 incident was the inspiration for the company, they said.
Official records and interviews with authorities in Nevada proved the story a fable. Maynard had been arrested and jailed here, all right -- because he'd failed to pay back a $16,000 gambling marker at the Mirage casino in Las Vegas. Like bouncing a check, that's a crime. Nevada authorities dropped the charges after Maynard, from his cell, managed to scrape together the cash.
The article also revealed that Maynard, the Valley businessman who was principally behind LifeLock during its 2005 inception, was banned for life in the 1990s from the credit-repair industry.
Then there was this ironic tidbit: Maynard's own father, Valley optometrist Robert Maynard Sr., accused him of identity theft.

Cracking LifeLock: Even After a $12 Million Penalty for Deceptive Advertising, the Tempe Company Can't Be Honest About Its Identity-Theft-Protection Service (via Threat Level)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Xenu

1. Who falls for this crap? The company is obviously a fraud, how dumb can consumers be?

2. Considering that it’s an obvious fraud, why is the company allowed to advertise on TV? At the very least, shouldn’t the FCC pull the plug on this guy?
- dequeued
  
  The same gullible (usually poor) people who buy computer from Blue Hippo.
  
  People who find learning anything new to be painful.
  
  People who probably think very highly of themselves…
jdollak

I did a search for his number.
I found, including him, 16 names using his number.
The highlights include “Java T Hut” and “Gaylord Focker” using his number.
acb

Maricopa County Jail? That’s the one run by Joe Arpaio, isn’t it? I wonder whether they had him breaking rocks in the desert dressed in a pink tutu or something.
Anonymous

No amount of data encryption or monitoring can replace good ol’ common sense…don’t put your SSN on TV. Simple. http://blog.itag.com/422/lifelock-stolen-identity/
AnthonyC

If nothing else, this demonstrates why the SSN was never intended or designed to be a form of identification.
pentomino

I think someone told Todd that if you paint your social security number on the side of a van, it looks to everyone else like ***-**-****.