CyberSleuth's team signed up for all major services, ran real credit checks, called support monthly, used multiple testers. Most lock features behind premium tiers. Only one includes everything on one plan.
Real identity theft protection requires six components: credit monitoring, dark web scanning, data broker removal, VPN, password management, and insurance. Most services make you pay for premium tiers to get all six. Only Aura includes every item on a single plan with no upsells.
LifeLock doesn't monitor all 3 credit bureaus unless you pay for their most expensive plan. Like a doctor who only checked your left arm until you paid her more. Their CEO once shared his Social Security number publicly — and got his identity stolen.
Our team ran real credit checks to test alert speed. Aura delivered the fastest alerts of any service — near real-time during our credit checks. They also surfaced more dark web instances than competitors. Their data broker coverage has grown from 133 to 140+ sites and keeps improving.
We call customer service every month or two to test. Aura's average hold time: approximately 4 seconds. We've never waited more than 1 minute. US-based, 24/7 support. You can also request removal from specific data broker sites directly.
Verdict: Every checklist item on one plan. Fastest alerts, most dark web instances, and 4-second support. Antivirus isn't best-in-class, but for complete identity theft protection, nothing else matches.
Verdict: Ro's #2 pick. High insurance ceiling and Norton integration. But tiered pricing means you pay premium for full bureau monitoring. CEO's SSN incident remains a cautionary tale.
Verdict: Handles one part of protection well. Better for stalking or public figure concerns where deeper data broker coverage is needed. Not a complete solution on its own.
Every item Ro tested for. Every box checked. No premium tier required.
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