Resolution from Identity Theft 911

What if there was a way to reduce fraud losses, reassure wary users, and help fraud victims get their financial life back in order, all at little or no out-of-pocket cost? It does sound too good to be true, but look what San Francisco-startup Identity Theft 911, LLC offers:

• ·      Up-to-date, professionally written articles on various fraud fighting topics
• ·      Fraud preventions tools such as credit report monitoring, locking mailboxes, and virus protection software
• ·      Victim assistance center staffed by former bank fraud service reps
• ·      Modern security “look and feel”

The Company

We’ve been talking with the principals at Identity Theft 911, LLC for the past few months. The 10-person company founded just six months ago (May 2003), is in high growth mode. It currently has six associates dealing with customers, and plans to triple the staff by January. The Bay-area company taps a deep pool of experienced bank fraud specialists, many of whom have been displaced as major San Francisco financial institutions have moved fraud service centers to lower cost areas.

With so many shady firms pitching questionable credit repair services over the Web, we feel fortunate to have come across a company truly trying to make a difference in fighting this crime. Through their close relationship with TransUnion and TU’s credit monitoring subsidiary TrueCredit, ID Theft 911, has developed tools and services to help victims repair damage from an identity takeover. The company is also involved in user education and service offerings to help users protect themselves from the crime.

Currently, its services are delivered primarily through large employee-assistance programs (EAP) at major U.S. corporations. Typically, large companies contract with an EAP provider to handle employee identity theft questions and resolution for a fixed per-incident fee. Identity Theft 911 recently won a contract to handle victim resolution for AIG’s new Identity Theft Insurance plan. The company also markets directly to consumers through its website, and through co-founder Adam Levin’s other company, www.credit.com  , offering a variety of prevention services and products, along with its core victim-resolution service priced at $300 to $500 depending on the complexity.

Table 2

Consumer products and services

Source: Company, 12/5/03

Table 3

Management

Source: Company, 12/5/03

Financial Institution Opportunities

The company, looking to expand its reach and impact, is willing to partner with financial institutions to develop a wide range of fraud protection and resolution services. Potential offerings range from educational articles running on the bank website to full-scale, fee-based resolution services that could be private-branded for the bank. Wholesale pricing is less than $0.50/mo per customer across your entire base, $2 more if credit monitoring is offered. The company will also work with financial institutions on a revenue-sharing basis.

Financial institutions could potentially outsource their entire identity theft educational content and services to the company. A private or co-branded ID Theft Center could run on the bank’s server, with the content updated periodically by Identity Theft 911.

Another option is to provide ID Theft insurance as a promotional giveaway. www.Credit.com  just launched a promotion that provides one year of free ID theft protection (insurance through AIG, resolution services through Identity Theft 911) as a premium for signing up for credit report monitoring delivered through TrueCredit’s FreeCreditProfile service (see below).

Why work with Identity Theft 911?

Pros

• ·      Better customer satisfaction
• ·      Improved customer retention
• ·      Differentiation in the marketplace
• ·      Reduced fraud losses
• ·      Improved employee satisfaction knowing that professionals can handle tricky victim resolution and police reporting
• ·      Fee income/profits from preventions products and services
• ·      Makes entire website more credible and trustworthy

Cons

• ·      One more service provider to manage and run due diligence on
• ·      Less control over dialogue with the customer
• ·      Out-of-pocket costs

Contact

Steven Christenson, CEO

Identity Theft 911, LLC

550 15th Street, Suite 28

San Francisco, California 94103

(415) 321-1940

scc@idtheft911.com                                                    

http://www.credit.com/  is using identity theft insurance (from AIG, with resolution services from Identity Theft 911) as a free premium to entice users to signup for an $80/yr credit monitoring plan from TrueCredit.