Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Protect Yourself1. Protectyoursocialsecuritynumber.Askquestionswhenasked
toprovideit.“IsthereanotherformofIDthatIcanprovide?”
2. Photocopyfrontandbackofallcardsyoucarryinyourwalletandstorethatinformationinasafeplace.
3. Neverroutinelycarryyoursocialsecuritycard,passport,orbirthcertificateinyourwalletorpurse.
4. Shredyourconfidentialtrashwithacrosscutordiamondcutshredder.
5. Givenopersonalinformationtoanyonefromanunsolicitedcomputer,telephoneorpersonalcontact.
6. Subscribetoatrueidentitytheftrestorationcompanyversusare-imbursementorcreditmonitoringservice.Thereisabigdifference!
7. Ensureyourcomputerisprotectedwithafirewall,andagainstvirusesandspyware.Encryptwirelessnetworks.
8. Orderyourcreditreportsatleastthreetimesperyear(free)www.annualcreditreport.com
9. Monitorfinancialaccountsdailyandreportanyunusualactivityimmediately.
10.Don’tleaveoutgoingmailwithpersonalinformationinyourmailboxforpick-up.
Identity Theft Protection Should Provide:• ProtectioninALLfacetsofIDTheft
• Real-TimeMonitoring
• CreditRestoration
• LegalCouncil
Top 10 TipsProtect Yourself Against ID Theft
Many Americans believe that identity theft only happens to people with credit or social security cards; this simply isn’t true. While it is impossible to totally eliminate the risk of becoming a victim, here are a few tips to help “you” remain the only ‘‘you” out there.
Report Internet Fraud: www.ic3.gov
Key Numbers: FBI(202)324-3000oryourlocalfieldoffice
FTC1-877-IDTHEFT
PostalInspectionService1-877-876-2455
IRS1-800-829-0433
SocialSecurityAdministration1-800-269-0271
Top 3 credit repositories:
EQUIFAXINFORMATIONSVCS(800)685-1111www.equifax.com
EXPERIAN(888)397-3742www.experian.com
TRANSUNION(800)916-8800www.transunion.com
Remove your name from lists:www.dmachoice.org
www.donotcall.gov(1-888-382-1222)
Stop preapproved credit card offers:1-888-5-OPTOUT(567-8688)
For more information: Arnum Wapples Jr., [email protected]/hub/Arnum
IDShield vs. Credit Monitoring vs. LifeLock
IDShield invites you to compare the scope and quality of their services with other products on the marketplace.
PRICING• IDShield has individual and family plans priced below LifeLock.
• IDShield charges one price for a family—member, partner/spouse and up to 8dependents. LifeLock charges by the person.
• Credit monitoring has comparable prices, but is not always the lowest. It is often givenaway for free after a breach. This is far less advanced and less useful than IDShield.
REMEDIATION• IDShield DOES the work for you:
° Unique to market, we have the only licensed private investigators on staff through our partner, Kroll. Members sign a limited power of attorney and IDShield goes to work on your behalf (they do the work, not you) to ensure restoration. Kroll brings the industrial-strength services used by corporations directly to consumers.
• LifeLock MAY contact outside lawyers or investigators who are never identified by namein advance to assist in resolution.
• Credit monitoring services identify certain issues regarding your credit file; however itonly covers a small portion of the monitoring story:
° The FTC states that only 20% of issues are captured by credit monitoring.
° “Give them the information and guidance they need to resolve the problem.” (Creates lots of work and hassle for you.)
CUSTOMER SERVICE• IDShield advisors and licensed private investigators are available for all matters Monday-
Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central Time. In the event of a personal ID theft emergency, advisors are available to direct you to an investigator 24/7/365.
° Located in Ada, OK; Nashville, TN; and Toronto, ON (for IDShield Canada).
• LifeLock has 24/7/365 customer support.
° Located domestically, LifeLock has two dedicated call centers with call center personnel who read scripts.
GUARANTEE VS. INSURANCE• IDShield offers a $5 million service guarantee.
° IDShield uses Kroll’s licensed private investigators to do “whatever it takes for as long as it takes” to restore a member’s identity and to expunge the theft from their permanent record.
° IDShield does not hire to-be-determined experts. WE are the experts, leveraging over 40 years of industry-based investigative techniques to resolve consumer ID theft issues.
• LifeLock offers a $1 million total service guarantee. LifeLock will spend up to $1 million to hire experts, lawyers, investigators, consultants and whomever else it takes to help your recovery.
° LifeLock will reimburse its members up to $6,000 for lost wages when they spend their own time doing the work, and will spend up to $5,000 on outside services (read the disclosure for their guarantee).
° LifeLock also offers a $25,000 insurance policy with $0 deductible to all of their members at no additional cost to cover any lapses in the Guarantee, but of course, you should ask, why would you need a $25,000 insurance policy for a $1 million guarantee? That makes no sense.
• Most credit monitoring services only have an insurance policy.
° Must file a claim and wait to be reimbursed.
° Reimbursement paperwork (receipts and forms) is subject to claims adjustors.
° Must use your own time, energy, and frustration to fight the theft.
° Has limits on payout amounts (i.e. lost wage reimbursement, etc.).
PROTECTING YOUR INFORMATION• IDShield is the “oldest new name in the business.” Formerly LegalShield IDT Protection,
we have 16 years and over 1 million lives protected. We partner with Kroll, the leading corporate security firm to monitor what matters: your privacy and your credit security.
• LifeLock is in business to protect identities. It has built extensive networks (LifeLock Identity Alert) to protect your identity in both the financial and non-financial sectors. For most of its history, LifeLock resold credit monitoring.
• Many credit monitoring services are part of another larger company not interested in protecting your identity. For example, the three major credit bureaus offer credit monitoring, but their main business is to sell the same information they are supposed to be protecting.
ISO 27001• IDShield has ISO 27001 and PCI compliance security certifications. ISO 27001 is the
highest security rating in the world for private (non-government) firms.
SUMMATIONWith a better scope and quality of services, IDShield is a FAR BETTER SERVICE and VALUE. Which plan would you choose to protect your identity? Give it a shield—IDShield.
©2015 LegalShield. Ada, OK
For more information: Arnum Wapples Jr., [email protected]/hub/Arnum
Few things are as disruptive for employees as legal difficulties and, with growing frequency, the after-math of identity theft. Lost time at work, and dis-tracted minds while on the job, also lower produc-
tivity and impact the bottom line.
While only a minority of employers currently offer broad-based legal services plans or specific ID theft protection services as voluntary benefits, the rationale for doing so can be compelling.
Legal ServicesA divorce, a lawsuit, bankruptcy or other legal issues can be expensive and distracting to employees. Around 800,000 to 900,000 couples divorce each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than a million people filed for bankruptcy during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2014—just two com-mon reasons why employees might need access to legal assistance.
The Case for Legal Services and ID Theft Benefits
Among employers with voluntary benefit programs, offering legal services is relatively common but by no means universal, with 55 percent making this option available to employees, according to a 2013 survey of 320 large U.S. employers conducted by Towers Wat-son.
However, among all employers, only 21 percent offer legal assistance services, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2014 Employee Benefits report.
Yet, “Many employees earn around $50,000 per year and don’t have the cash flow to pay for expensive hourly legal fees,” said Holley Maher, a partner with MRCT, an insur-ance, retirement and HR consulting firm in Clayton, Mo.
Choosing PlansLike any benefit program, legal services come in all shapes and sizes, from simple referral services (which may be pro-vided through an employee assistance program) to group legal plans offered through the workplace and funded via payroll deduction.
If considering a group plan, evaluate different offerings to see which will best meet employee needs such as:
• Writing a will or a living will.• Establishing a trust.• Resolving traffic violations.• Creating a health care power of attorney.• Reviewing miscellaneous legal
contracts and documents.• Handling family issues like
adoption and divorce.
Beyond that, a legal services plan should have an ample number of lawyers who specialize in required services available in the geographic area where all or most employ-ees reside.
Employers should also review what free services, if any, are offered and what services are discounted and how much. “Is the network of law firms open or closed? Are depen-dents eligible for the plan?” asked Maher.
ID Theft ProtectionWhen employees have their identity stolen, criminals can use that data to open fraudulent bank and credit card ac-counts, obtain government benefits, and apply for employ-ment. Here are some numbers to consider:
• Nearly 75 percent of ID theft victims are between the ages of 20 and 59, the prime working years.
• ID theft is also on the rise. The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel database reports that identity theft complaints have grown from 86,250 in 2001 to 290,056 in 2013. This jibes with U.S. census data that indicates that more than 250,000 people are victims of identity theft each year.
• About 25 percent of large U.S. employers offered ID theft protection in 2013, according to Towers
Watson.
Identity theft may not require the services of a lawyer, but it can still take numerous hours for an employee to straighten out the situation. “As the use of electronic medical records and e-filing for taxes increases, so do the reports of identity theft,” said Maher.
“The biggest reasons to offer identity theft benefits are lost productivity and employee stress, which, in turn, add to medical costs,” said Heidi Rasmussen, co-owner of freshbe-nies, a Dallas-based employee benefits firm.
Without access to ID theft protection services, an employ-ee could spend hours of work time trying to resolve related issues. This does not even include any general loss of productivity from an employee dealing with the stress and worry of the situation.
Moreover, Rasmussen noted, the longer an employee doesn’t realize that his or her identity has been stolen, the worse the damage becomes. “It could take hundreds of hours to resolve,” she said. “It’s far better if an identity theft is found early in the process, and that’s the goal of a good identity theft protection program.”
“Considering that the Target breach affected 35 percent of the American population and the impact of the Heartbleed [online security bug] is yet to be fully seen, this is a hot topic right now,” she said.
*Reprinted from “The Case for Legal Services & ID Bene-fits”, an SHRM.org article, with permission of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). ©SHRM 2015. All rights reserved.
The IRS released on Dec. 30, 2015, its Announcement 2016-02, which allows preferential tax treatment for employer-provided identity theft benefits despite the absence of a data breach. The guidance states that the value of identity protection services provided by the individual’s employer can be excluded from the em-ployee’s gross income and wages, and does not need to be reported on an employee’s Form W-2 or on a Form 1099-MISC. The announcement does not apply to cash provided by employers to employees in lieu of identity protection services.
For more information: Arnum Wapples Jr., [email protected]/hub/Arnum
