The Birth of an EXCITING Industry

You have an opportunity to play a major part in the exciting birth of a new industry that will mature and evolve into a multi-billion dollar industry. Pandora’s box has opened on identity theft and it will never close in our lifetime. There is no doubt that this outsourced risk industry will be here longer than you and I will ever be. As you further your walk down this path you will consistently notice or be asked about new services that pop up on the scene. When you consider that less than 5% of households currently own some form of identity theft protection and that number is estimated to swell to over 70% in the next 36-48 months it would only stand to reason that this is a ripe market for new companies to enter into.

If you do any amount of research on the internet you will find literally hundreds of these companies. The identity theft protection industry is like the wild-wild west right now with numerous gimmicky programs popping up to cash in on the media attention surrounding this subject.

Unlike other traditional\mature outsourced risk programs (auto, life, health, home etc.) the identity theft protection industry has not gone through its cleansing process yet and consumers have not learned how to evaluate these programs like ones we are all second and third generation of.

I live my life by the mantra… “Time will either promote you or expose you.” When choosing any identity theft service today the term, "caveat emptor," or "buyer beware," certainly applies.

The trained eye doesn’t have to read too far into most service offerings on company websites or brochures to recognize that for the most part they provide help, guidance and assistance to their subscribers.

These would be prime examples I would use to demonstrate the difference between…

Resolution vs. Restoration - or maybe a better way to describe it would be… “Do-it-yourself with a manual and a subscriber help line” vs. “Please just make my problem go away with limited involvement on my part because I am too busy taking care of everything else life throws at me”

Part of what we do as the iTAG Community Action Team, is to help consumers understand what the important considerations are from both a victims and an advocates perspective. Having been down this road personally, I know what victims go through and really need in a protection program.

Right or wrong, we live in a society where consumers have come to expect\demand that someone ‘fix’ their problems for them and not just to provide counseling or do-it-yourself aid.

There are numerous ‘good’ programs out there. But as this industry evolves and more consumers become victims, there will be a shakeout of programs that don’t make the grade and the bar will continually rise.

As the bar does rise, more and more programs will have to offer ‘managed restoration’ to be able to compare themselves apple for apple with the Identity Theft Shield and the upgrade option to include the Life Events Legal Plan. But the newcomers will always be playing follow the leader for numerous reasons listed below.

In putting iTAG together as an industry leader in education and protection, we established criteria for how we would evaluate the programs out there, so we can make CONFIDENT recommendations to our clients. Here are the essential criteria anyone should consider when protecting the ‘WHOLE CLIENT’:

• Number of years in business - organizations that have been around for more than 5 years and have been put to the fire and stood the test of time. Which is a tall order when you consider that most of the companies that offer identity theft protection services have just popped up in the last 24-36 months. iTAG is reluctant to make our clients the guinea pig of a start up until they have proven themselves.
• Depth of knowledge - this is important when you are dealing with a person’s most valuable asset next to their good health.
• Resources\Staff Size - Most of the organizations offering these types of services lack the infrastructure of experienced personnel to service the ‘whole client’.
• Accountability - we tend to favor publicly traded companies because they have higher accountability due to compliance wit Sarbanes Oxley and the SEC.
• Access to legal counsel 24\7 – An important component as it relates to Criminal and DMV identity theft. PPL is the ONLY company that I have found anywhere in this country that provides their members with 24-7 access to legal counsel. And in 35+ years as an industry leader no other company has been able to duplicate\knock-off that critical component. Which ties into the next criteria…
• Solutions that address all 5 areas of ID Theft - The layered protection principle is an important consideration. We ONLY consider programs that have all the necessary components to address all 5 areas of ID Theft which of course includes access to qualified legal counsel not just 8-5 but around the clock 24/7.
• Highest Probability of making a client ‘whole’ again - And most importantly… the programs and companies that have the Highest documented Probability of making a client ‘whole’ again after victimization. There is a very compelling reason why most companies that have experienced data breaches or are concerned about the possibility of experiencing a breach have retained KROLL to come in to save the day and provide disaster control…. because they are undisputedly the best at what they do!!!

iTAG takes a very holistic approach to identity theft protection, much like consumers do when they shop for health insurance. We all recognize that no matter how healthy a lifestyle we lead or how cautious we live our lives…that illnesses and accidents can still happen to us (a medical doctor’s knowledge of the human body does not prevent them from getting sick or having an accident either… they still own medical insurance.) Lance Armstrong comes to mind. Mr. Armstrong could not have ridden his bike an extra couple of thousand miles the year he got cancer to stop that event from happening, but rather needed access to world class hospitals staffed by world class doctors that had the highest documented probability of making him well and putting him back together again. That’s what we all want when we shop for health care and insurance.

The same philosophy holds true for identity theft protection. Even with the thousands of hours I have dedicated to researching the subject of identity theft I am just as susceptible\vulnerable to becoming a victim again, as the person across the street that doesn’t know anything about identity theft.

I sincerely hope the above narrative is helpful to you in your marketing efforts. Feel free to leverage any part of it as you continue to shape your prospects perceptions and become their point of reference for identity theft education and protection.

Cybercriminals prey on consumer apathy

Apparently not enough of you are getting the message about phishing and how NOT to respond. Consumer Reports just came out with a study that suggests around 8% of the population, or about 1 in every 12 consumers, actually fell for phishing scams and handed over personal information.

The study found that in the last two years the nearly one million consumers who fell for these scams ended up losing billions of dollars in the process.

And the fight against spyware and viruses is not making much headway either. The study suggested that one every four consumers has fallen victim to some kind of cybercrime in the last 24 months, losing a staggering $7 billion between them.

And even more shocking, over the same period 1.8 million households had to replace a personal computer because of virus infections too . Hardly a surprise when a large part of the population still doesn't believe in the importance of anti-virus, anti-spyware, or even firewalls. Let alone identity theft protection !!!

Someimes it's hard to feel sorry for victims who refuse to think that the smoke they smell might be worth investigating.

What's in your wallet?

A new research study of the top 25 largest credit card issuers suggests many of those firms need to upgrade their identity fraud prevention and detection tools to better serve consumers according to a story published by ComputerWorld.

The story continues with the excerpts from a recently released study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research which found some of these deficiencies:
56% of the 25 card issuers surveyed continue to require full Social Security numbers to help identify their customers, whether by phone, online or by mail.

"This is a risky practice that unnecessarily increases the customer's exposure to identity fraud," the report states.

Consumers are not allowed to set transaction limits or block certain types of transactions using their credit cards, such as restricting card use to purchases only made with U.S. vendors, according to the study.

In fact, only 24% of the surveyed card issuers allow consumers to set so-called user-defined limits and/or prohibitions (UDLAPs) on their accounts to help prevent unauthorized use, the study concluded.

While card issuers can offer consumers e-mail or telephone "transaction alerts" to advise them of account activity, the number of participating card companies is still small -- about 8%.

So, our tip for today is to check what is really 'in your wallet.'

Make sure to contact your credit card company and inquire into what fraud prevention services they offer - for free.

We recently learned of major card provider which uses account numbers as the default mode for customers to access their online web site.

The consumer has to call the card issuer's customer service department and request an alternate user id be setup for web site access.

Regardless of "what's in your wallet", take proactive action to minimize your risk of becoming an easy target for identity theft.