A pair of identity theft players moving into the worksite looked as if they were going to turn the expo hall of a recent conference into their personal octagon.

No blows were thrown, but the drama was high as a lawsuit against LifeLock made its way around the conference floor. LifeLock has become a bit of a darling in the industry with a captivating and very well-received marketing campaign.

You've probably seen it. The CEO of the company shares his personal Social Security number, daring would-be ID criminals to take their best shot.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based company's service model turns the old "shutting the barn door after the horse leaves" adage on its head, according to Jim Smith, who leads LifeLock's business development.

"I liken it to having a security alarm for your home and it tells you the thief actually came through the kitchen," Smith says. "Nice to know, but it didn't prevent the theft from occurring."

Members can lock down their credit activity, forcing anyone and everyone to verify an inquiry with the consumer before processing the request. That usually means a phone call to the individual to let them know someone is applying for credit.

"With us we completely lock down your identity so that it can't be stolen. Not only that, the big differentiator is we back it up with a million dollar service guarantee so if anything was to happen where your identity was stolen we'll work to restore that and make you whole financially," Smith says.

In addition to solid marketing, the service offering seems to resonate. Last January the company had just 30,000 members. This January that number has swollen to nearly 700,000. Its growth and its model have caught the eye and ire of at least one of the major credit reporting agencies.

Experian Information Solutions filed suit mid-February asserting that LifeLock had committed a host of misdeeds - fact suppression, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, Lanham Act violations and unjust enrichment, among others.

The agency says that the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibits LifeLock's fraud alert service, which requires continuous advance individual notification.

"Despite this prohibition, LifeLock has surreptitiously placed hundreds of thousands of fraud alerts on Experian's files by posing as the consumer," the suit claims.

Smith says given the credit agencies' core business, it's no wonder they are frustrated by the company's service.

"The three credit bureaus are in the business of selling data. Think about it," Smith says. If LifeLock puts a clamp on that data stream then that puts a clamp on the reporting agencies business, Smith says.

The suit actually seems to set a pretty low bar for agencies like Experian and others. At one point it notes that LifeLock's fraud alert service places a "significant burden" on creditors because it requires them to "take reasonable steps to verify the consumer's identity and confirm that the application for a new credit plan is not the result of identity theft." That's "over and above" what many creditors can do, according to Experian's complaint.

The complaint also cites media reports detailing how LifeLock co-founder Robert J. Maynard, Jr. - who has since resigned - developed the idea for Lifelock "while sitting in a jail cell after having been arrested for reneging on a $16,000 casino marker taken out at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas."

Not surprisingly, Smith says his company isn't worried about the suit.

"We feel like it's frivolous. It's baseless. We've been very clear about our services. We certainly take this very seriously and we will work to work with Experian, [but] at the same time we will fight this vigorously," Smith says. 

While LifeLock may be able to lock down a person's credit, they were unable to lock down the expo hall of Workplace Benefits Renaissance, in Orlando at the end of February.

ID Theft Assist, a provider with 14 million members in the U.S. and looking to crack the worksite market, was also in attendance.

John Marsini, one of three principals leading a Philadelphia-based wholesaling operation for ID Theft Assist, refused to comment on the suit.

Smith says regardless of how word of the suit spread across the expo hall, his company would take the high road.

"I think it actually shows a little bit of desperation," says Smith. "I would sense that most people would see it for what it is. I would just say we would never compete in that way. We always like to talk about what we do, not what someone else does or doesn't do."

And that's something both Smith and Marsini can agree on. Marsini says ID Theft Assist stands out from the crowded market in a variety of ways.  

"We are the only identity theft company that has an operational relationship with one of the major credit repositories, that being TransUnion," according to Marsini.

Also, ID Theft Assist touts its total restoration service, which promises to completely resolve an individual's credit once it's been compromised. Marsini also says his company's medical ID theft protocol stands out in the market place. "(Medical ID theft) is the single largest growing area of ID theft in the country," he says.

But there is more common ground shared by the two competing identity theft services. Despite frequent adviser comments that such services cloud and often confuse the worksite market, both say the productivity benefits of such a program are indisputable.

"The theory behind it is as follows," Marsini says. "The FTC reports that it takes somewhere between 75 and 600 hours for an individual to repair his or her person once an identity compromise has taken place." Translate that into language an employer understands and we're talking lots and lots of time spent not working. And that's not all, Marsini says studies show ID theft victims suffer psychologically as well. "We have support services for that as part of our package," he says.

 LifeLock announced in January it had reached a deal with Willis to provide its services as an employee benefit to its 3,500 U.S.-based workers.