A judge has delayed his decision on whether to ban LifeLock from setting fraud alerts on its customers' credit bureau accounts, giving the Tempe-based company a few weeks' breathing room.
Federal Judge Andrew Guilford has already ruled LifeLock's scheme of setting fraud alerts doesn't comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act; an injunction on the practice threatens to blow up LifeLock's primary source of revenue. The credit bureau Experian sued LifeLock in early 2008, accusing it of hurting business. LifeLock supposedly has an alternate business plan it will roll out in the coming weeks -- yeah, good luck with that. Guilford has set a new hearing for October 5 on the possible injunction.
In other LifeLock news, the ocean adventure company started by LifeLock's founder, Robert J. Maynard Jr. (pictured above), appears to have hit an iceberg. You remember Maynard Jr -- he's the guy we exposed back in 2007 for telling a tall tale about how he came up with the idea for LifeLock (and how the Federal Trade Commission had banned him from the credit industry -- for life).
Maynard Jr. reportedly forgot that insurance would be a critical factor in the business, which involved taking tourists out on the ocean to go diving or sailing. It seems like once the insurance bill got paid, there weren't enough clams left over to pay the 200-plus employees. Maynard claims to have invested $9 million in the business, called KanDoo!, and intends to keep it afloat through these rough waters.
Hmm, maybe part of LifeLock's new business plan could be to protect people from companies started by its former executive...
