Stories of Identity Theft in Florida – Do You Protect Your ID?
Bill* had just returned home to Florida from his overseas travel and received some disturbing news as he sorted through his mail. A letter from a local car rental agency out of Orlando International Airport was notifying him that he had been blacklisted from using their services. The reason? They purported that Bill had never returned the car he rented and were demanding the return of the car immediately.
Bill had been out of the country at the time and had never rented a car. But someone else had. In fact, someone using Bill’s identity had rented cars from three different rental agencies and never returned the vehicles.
This is not the kind of welcome home anyone would expect.
In fact, identity theft victimized an estimated 17.6 million people–or 7% of all U.S. residents age 16 or older–in the U.S. in 2014, according to the most recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. According to other reports, Florida ranks second highest in total identity theft complaints and highest in fraud and other complaints.
While thieves employ myriad means to steal identities, the increasing use of online services, such as shopping and banking, the sharing of personal information on social media, and the sophisticated hacking capabilities of criminal organizations makes having identity theft protection more important than ever.
At Security First Insurance, we help ensure that our policyholders have the protection they need at an affordable cost. Our identity theft protection program, provided through PrivacyMaxx, includes monitoring and recovery services for $25 per year.
The monitoring aspect of Security First Insurance’s program looks for data anomalies, such as credit card activity in Colorado when the insured lives in Florida, a second social security number linked to an insured’s name, and other irregularities associated with an individual’s identity profile. Monitoring is only one line of defense, so the program also provides a policyholder with a dedicated identity recovery and restoration specialist who offers expert support by notifying credit bureaus, creditors, financial institutions, and law enforcement officers of fraudulent activity when it occurs. For the insured, this assistance can save days–even months–of hassle and heartache and halt additional losses.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics report also states that “victims who spent more time resolving the associated problems were more likely to experience problems with work and personal relationships and severe emotional distress than victims who resolved the problems relatively quickly.” In fact, 29% of victims who spent six months or more resolving financial and credit problems due to the theft experienced severe emotional distress, compared to 4% who spent a day or less.
While talking recently with PrivacyMaxx CEO Robert Maynard about Security First Insurance’s identity theft protection program, he shared Bill’s rental car identity theft story.
Because Bill is one of our policyholders and is covered under the program, the PrivacyMaxx team did the legwork to address the issue. Unfortunately, since the thief used a third party’s credit card, there were no early indicators that monitoring could catch.
“No monitoring can catch everything,” said Robert, “that’s why the recovery aspect of the program, in addition to the monitoring, is so important.”
He explained that in the car rental case, recovery involved placing 24 telephone calls to the three rental car companies affected, reviewing security camera footage, and providing documentation that proved Bill was indeed out of the country when the cars were rented.
Most victims of identity theft (86%) experience the misuse of an existing credit card or bank account, and two-thirds of all victims reported a direct financial loss, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report.
While misuse of existing credit cards can cause a lot of problems, a worse situation occurs when a criminal opens new credit cards using your name or social security number. This type of identity theft occurred with a second policyholder covered by the theft protection program. Robert explained that while deployed overseas last year, a serviceman became a victim of identity theft. Within the space of a few days, his wife (living in the U.S.) received nine new credit cards in the mail that they never applied for. After opening the accounts using the soldier’s information, the thief racked up thousands of dollars in purchases that were now being billed to the solider. Unable to contact her husband, the wife felt overwhelmed and needed help dealing with the recovery aspect of the fraud and identity theft.
Robert said PrivacyMaxx is currently hard at work to shut down the nine fraudulent accounts and provide military records to the credit card agencies to prove that the insured was serving overseas at the time the accounts were opened and the purchases were made.
Because of this program, this military family—sacrificing to protect our country—is also receiving the protection they deserve.
How do you stop a criminal from using your personal information again?
Most identity thieves move on quickly from one victim to the next, said Robert. It’s easy for them to go after a new victim and thereby avoid leaving a trail. Secondly, PrivacyMaxx “drastically raises the shields” on a victim’s credit and identity profiles, working with banks and credit bureaus to establish fraud alerts and enhanced levels of protection.
And, finally, PrivacyMaxx conducts a 12-month follow up with the customer after an aggressive level of monitoring to detect any new activity. “Post recovery, customers are also more aware, which helps to deter further problems,” Robert said.
5 Tips to Avoid Identity Theft
The Security First Insurance website provides information on everything from home repair scams to identity theft prevention tips. But here are five quick tips to help you from becoming a victim:
- Look out for skimmers, nearly undetectable devices placed over card readers on ATM machines to collect personal financial information. Instead, get cash back at the store register.
- Change your usernames and passwords frequently.
- Don’t respond to emails, texts or phone calls requesting personal information.
- Check your online account balance and transactions often.
- Obtain identity theft protection!
If you are a Security First Insurance policyholder, you can add identity theft protection at renewal on your Florida homeowners insurance policy. We also offer identity theft monitoring services with our Florida condo and renters insurance policies, too.
*Not his real name.
