First Look: IdentityTruth.com

What is it: A Web site service that provides early warning detection to let you know if your identity has been compromised.

How does it do it: According to the site, Identity Truth monitors many sources beyond simply credit monitoring. They monitor public records plus public information floating on the Internet. They claim to be able to do this without asking for your social security number.

Status: Currently in beta.

Cost: The beta is free, with a limited invitation. $9.95 for a one-time search. $9.99  per month for an ongoing service.  

Early Review: IdentityTruth first collects a bit of information about me, then plugs that data into a powerful Web crawler-based Internet intelligence engine provided by Cyveillance.  The back end Cyveillance engine is impressive in many ways, especially the fact that it can find things that not even Google can get its tentacles on, like emails and chat room discussions—a popular forum where private rooms trade credit card information.

I launched the service with my cell phone as my primary number. Within minutes I began receiving text messages to my phone and email detailing all the personal information that Identity Truth found floating around “out there” about me. For example, it found every place I’d lived since college, all my past phone numbers, and a few other choice tidbits. The service determined that information from the Internet, combined with information from my credit report (which it deduced somehow) indicated a high likelihood that I was already a victim of cell phone fraud – someone getting a cell phone in my name. I looked into it and found that all the numbers were mine. But still – impressive. 

Any time my personal information is out there and potential usable in a fraudulent way, Identity Truth calculates the risk to me and notifies me, suggesting ways to remediate the problem.

The competition: I like it much better than LifeLock which seems never to notify me (only the prospective creditor gets a message), or TrustedID which freezes my credit and slows down transactions with lenders (overkill unless I know my identity has been stolen).

Beta irritations: While signing up was easy, the registration system questioned the veracity of the password I chose. Now I know passwords.  Passwords are in my blood! So imagine my surprise when I entered one of my supremely excellent passwords (easy to remember, hard to guess) and the IdentityTruth system plastered a message across the screen declaring my password to be “Mediocre.” 

My password certainly was not mediocre. I imagine the system was looking for a random-looking long character string – the sort of password one would have to write down and thereby make it less secure. IdentityTheft needs to look at more factors besides length of a password to determine its worth.

Another annoyance is when trying to view the Terms of Use, I attempted to print, but only got a screen shot, cutting off the text. 

In summary: IdentityTruth looks like an excellent balance between its two competitors (LifeLock and TrustedID) and if continues to do what it appears it can do, I’ll likely rely on for years.

 

Comments

[Jeff Prusan]

IdentityTruth sounds much like a Faces of The Nation report or what some "info brokers" refer to as a "Comp" or Comprehensive Report - for $50. you get about 12 pages of a subject's previous address, neighbors, possible relatives, friends, prior jobs, a stab at criminal history (sorry no pun intended), and lots of useless information some include, GASP, a real satellite photo of the subjects house (from Google Earth). As for Lifelock, they leave a lot to be desired, and I spend a lot of time researching them - take a look at Debix, cheaper, seems better, and they have a fun demo page you can use to scare your friends into thinking their ID has been compromised - - Debix.com .

There is a lot of interesting data bases and services out there, but it takes some serious vetting to make sure you are not throwing your money or your confidential information away!

[Mary Heready]

Does Identity Truth offer legal services, on top of the Insurance that comes with the service? They promote early detection, and it would seem that having a legal arm in the earliest possible time, rather than having to find a lawyer after the fact makes more sense. Rather than having to get a copy of every single thing they bill you for, and then 'hope' that you get 100% reinbursement from an insurance company. Would like to see if there are any competitive products out there.

[nadia]

I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is very useful

[Steve Hunt]

Thanks for the kind words, Nadia.

[Am G]

Identity Truth is owned by Provell, Inc which does business by many names, one of which is WC Value Plus. GOOGLE these names and see the accusations against this company due to fraudulent credit card charges. You may think twice about trusting this company with your private information.