While doing some research on the Internet, I came across a somewhat obvious fact that had not seemed obvious to me until that moment. According to bankinfosecurity.com, when an individual experiences identity theft, he or she usually does not continue to do business with a financial institution if the financial institution is at fault. Makes sense; doesn’t it? But I never really thought about that.
According to Joanna Crane, an identity theft expert, “Victims now have an expectation of assistance [when theft occurs].†When a consumers private information is compromised they often blame their financial institution especially when fraudulent transactions occur and even if its not the banks fault in any way. “Oftentimes they will switch banks,” Crane says in an interview with BankInfoSecurity.com’s Tracy Kitten. “Thirty percent will switch credit card companies after an account takeover,” she adds.
By not meeting these goals, banks lose customers, which should be an incentive for them to step up their game so to speak. However, many consumers feel they still aren’t doing enough, especially as the number of victims per year remains at between 8 and 10 million.
Crane reports that identity theft incidence continue to increase because medical fraud is on the rise. She also speculates that the companies which use healthcare information need to be more proactive than banks were in preventing identity theft and resolving it quickly. “The industry wants to address it before it grows to the level that financial information identity theft has,†she said.
Of course, companies becoming more proactive is a great thing, but consumers need to become more proactive as well. Many don’t realize that they have been a victim of identity theft until several weeks after the crime occurred. Sometimes it takes a year or longer. This has got to change, consumer complacency around identity theft needs to end.
What needs to be done is people need to check their credit reports at least three times per year (free from annualcreditreport.com) and actually review in detail the report. They need to have a proactive stance towards the protection of their personally identifiable information, from protecting their social security number, passwords and account numbers to shredding documents, being aware of ones surroundings and securing their computers and phones.
Consumers should also strongly consider purchasing identity theft protection. The advanced data monitoring of many of these services simply provides a level of protection that we could not do on our own and being informed promptly of any identity theft attack can make a night and day difference when it comes to dealing with the situation.
In short, identity protection services help to keep your information safe and provide assistance, guarantees and/or insurance should you or any other protected family member become a victim of the crime whether it is due to negligence on the part of your financial institution or some other other company, or some other situation that is beyond your control.