My liberal head continues to spin. On Thursday, it was announced that former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also known as one of Donald Trump’s BFFs was just appointed “informal advisor on cybersecurity issues” to the future often-called “corrupt” world leader.
Giuliani, who heads a cybersecurity consulting firm Giuliani Partners, will serve as an adviser on finding solutions to cyber-incursions in the private sector and to advise the government on possible responses.
To give some background on the Giuliani Partners, John Solomon and Matthew Most wrote an investigative piece about the company in 2007 for The Washington Post. The extensive story was not kind to Rudy Giuliani or his colleagues.
“Famously loyal, Giuliani chose as his partners longtime associates, including a former police commissioner (Bernard Keirk) later convicted of corruption, a former FBI executive (DiAmuo) who admitted taking artifacts from Ground Zero and a former Roman Catholic priest (Monseignor Alan Placa) accused of covering up sexual abuse in the church.”
The story is an adventure and worth reading. But there is another story about Giuliani and his “cybersecurity” credentials. He used to be the spokesmodel for LifeLock, the shady cybersecurity company, which was fined $100,000,000 by the Federal Trade Commission/FTC — for fraud.
If you watch TV late at night, you will most likely have seen a plethora of annoying infomercials about “identity theft” by a company called, LifeLock. The company has bombarded TV and radio for years, scamming vulnerable consumers into thinking if they don’t buy the service, they could lose everything. Karma caught up with LifeLock in 2015 when the company was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to pay $100 Million in a settlement for “the egregiousness of LifeLock’s actions.” It was one of the largest fines the FTC has ever issued. The majority of that settlement went back to the consumers who were conned by LifeLock. This was not the first time the FTC targeted and fined LifeLock. In 2010 the New York Times reported:
“The government agency charged LifeLock for failing to deliver promises that it would protect personal data and inform users with any signs of identity invasion. LifeLock was fined then as well for apparently did not learn from that legal $12 million dollar lesson and fine.”
In a statement, LifeLock claimed,
“The allegations raised by the FTC are related to advertisements that we no longer run and policies that are no longer in place. The settlement does not require us to change any of our current products or practices.”
So even though they paid $112 million in fines, which is probably pocket change for them, their fear-mongering ads continue to appear on TV, in radio, and now on social media. In this tweet, LifeLock warns, We must protect our parents and other aging loved ones.” Perhaps we should first warn our loved ones of LifeLock.
The commercials that show Rudy Giuliani eagerly promoting Lifelock are difficult to find. Many have been pulled from YouTube. Daily Mail did capture one, but why give the company extra press. I did find a clip from Fox News where Giuliani gushes over LifeLock (while also calling for the censorship of rap music, and in general being his asshole self.) In the Fox clip, Giuliani assures us:
“First of all, everybody now, uh, I... I represent LifeLock so take where I come from. I work for them. I’m an advisor. Everybody should have something like LifeLock. Everybody should have Identity protection. I like LifeLock. I think it’s the best.”
Here is the video of Giuliani plugging LifeLock on Fox.
The LifeLock connection was discovered via the national FlushRush campaign and Rush Limbaugh sponsor boycott. The volunteer consumer activists logged LifeLock into the StopRush database daily as loyalty sponsor of The Rush Limbaugh Show. LifeLock remained on the Rush Limbaugh Sponsor Petition for over four years. Rush Limbaugh, LifeLock, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump… four peas in a fucking pod.
In researching LifeLock, a plethora of customer complaints were filed on the ConsumerAffairs website. After the FTC fine, LifeLock went into damage control and the complaints seem to have been pushed way down and replaced with perfect-score endorsements for the company. When you scroll down far enough you’ll find some of the people complaining that LifeLock did not report/missed many major online purchases/applications, and when customers went to cancel, it became nearly impossible. And some, when finally cancelled complained they were still billed for months later. What many also discovered is that banks and credit card companies offer the same or better security as LifeLock — for free. Here are just eight of the complaints from the first page.
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- After my mother fell ill, she asked me to cancel her account as she found the service useless -- which LifeLock refused to do. For four months after my mother died -- Lifelock continued to refuse to cancel her account and continued to charge her credit card. Even after several notices and agreeing to send paperwork to get it canceled and saying they would not continue to charge her, they continued to charge her credit card. After the credit card was canceled they continued to charge her credit card. When the credit card was canceled they sent threatening letters. DO NOT SIGN up for this service as it is impossible to cancel.
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- Lifelock failed to monitor a mortgage loan and credit checks. I had to request a supervisor in order to obtain a refund from Lifelock. We were in the process of buying a home and we were never notified by Lifelock that applications for a home mortgage were being requested at a well-known financial institution.
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- Since 2005, I've moved 4 times and bought 2 houses. Neither mortgage application -- and subsequent credit checks to establish new services in a new city -- triggered any LifeLock notifications, calls, or anything of the sort. LifeLock was more than happy to cancel my membership of over 10 years without even questioning why. I have since signed up with a different service and within a week of new service, I was notified of activity associated with my SSN. LifeLock isn't worth the money.
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- I realize LL is out for a profit - companies can't survive without a substantial bottom line - but making it difficult to "unsubscribe" to your service is a terrible way to retain business. LL should aspire to retain subscribers by providing better value for the dollar - rather than making EVERYTHING an "upgrade". Maybe if they reduced their advertising budget and increased value for existing customers, they might see an increase in business through organic growth. Retention is key - but forced retention builds animosity and resentment toward the company and basically assures those who unsubscribe will most likely never return.
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- Purchased LifeLock to monitor my credit but after they missed 3 fraudulent credit applications and 6 charges to my debit card. Luckily I was notified by the credit card companies and my bank. I see all they were monitoring was my payments to them...
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- I've never applied for membership. Give me my money back you took without my approval, and you are an identity theft company. Wow, because I never heard from you on email or mailed, until now that you are trying to get a payment.
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- I cannot understand why anybody would take this company seriously. They don't really protect you. They just keep looking at your banking statement and your credit card charges and keep asking you if you have made a particular payment. Accordingly, they kept bugging me with each online check payment and each credit card charge above $500. Because their software is so very primitive and doesn't learn anything, each month I had to respond to them for every periodic payment I make over and over, and over again. The contract they make you sign, frees them from any responsibility. They do take your money however. I used them for a little over 6 months and finally dismissed them.
And now here we are with the LifeLock darling Rudy Giuliani with his business “partners" advising Trump on cybersecurity. Guess who will profit the most? Guess who will lose. The Washington Post adds:
Cybersecurity was a topic at Trump’s news conference Wednesday, with the president-elect acknowledging for the first time that Russia was responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the presidential election campaign last year. Trump said that he had asked intelligence officials to do a “major report” on hacking within 90 days.
Rudy’s going to help go after the Russian hackers. The surrealism of Donald Trump continues.
Social media and traditional media need to further expose Rudy Giuliani, as well as expose all of Donald Trump’s corrupt entourage who were selected to help him manipulate and profit off Americans. Information like this, or by any news group or reputable blog would do us well to be shared on personal social media platforms. Donald Trump and his entourage of crooked cronies need to be stopped and it will take we the people to expose and stop him. #TheResistance can and will prevail if we get active and stay active.