The Effects of Identity Theft
Part three of a four part series discussing identity theft.
by Jean Dunaway, President
While financial institutions work hard to ensure the safety of their customer's personal information, becoming a victim of identity theft can devastate an individual. In situations such as these, a financial institution needs to do everything it can to help the victim restore their life and their credit history. After years of being shrugged to the side, identity theft is finally being taken seriously by individuals and institutions alike, but is it too late? The "couldn't happen to me" attitudes displayed by our society in the past are now coming back to haunt us.
While identity theft damages can take on many different forms to individuals, financial institutions also deal with various aspects. In most cases, a financial institution will incur some or all of the financial losses experienced by their customers. If the institution was at fault, they will more than likely lose the customer's business as well. In some extreme cases, other penalties may be assessed to the institution if they were blatantly careless with the individual's non-public information or failed to file a Suspicious Activity Report in the event of a questionable transaction.
A joint study between the California Public Interest Research Group and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse discovered that the average time it takes an identity theft victim to realize something has occurred is about 14 months. In that amount of time, a criminal can easily ruin an individual's credit history by leaving a trail of unpaid debts and ruined credit history. It can takes a lengthy amount of time in order for an individual to completely restore their lives to normal, and they will need a lot of assistance from their financial institution in order to do so.
The hardest part of these proceedings is that the victim must prove that they didn't commit the fraud. Instead of being innocent until proven guilty, the exact opposite situation prevails. Creditors usually request several pieces of information from the individual, including old documents from the time the fraud was committed to verify signatures and employment information. Not only are some of these documents difficult to find, but the creditors also usually require them to be submitted in a very short amount of time.
In most cases, the individual was the unknowingly careless party in causing the occurrence of identity theft. Financial institutions will play the good neighbor and help to cover the losses experienced by the victim from their account as long as the individual can prove that they were in no way directly responsible and do so in a timely manner.
Institutions can play a major role in educating and safeguarding customer information by providing information to their customers on the topic of identity theft and how to prevent its occurrence. This simple step can prevent hours of additional work and financial losses for both the institution and its customers. It will also boost customer satisfaction and let them know that their financial institution is interested in their financial security and personal well being.
Stay tuned for our final installment in this series covering How to Prevent Identity Theft.
To learn about courses offered by Bankers Training & Consulting Company pertaining to Privacy and Identity Theft, access our website at www.btcc.com or call us at (800) 264-7600.
Did you miss part one, click here, or part two to read it.
Jean Dunaway, Bankers Training and Consulting Company (BTCC) President, has an extensive history in the financial services industry, serving over 20 years in various positions including vice president, regional sales manager and director of training. Currently, Dunaway oversees the day-to-day operations and visionary direction of BTCC. Joining BTCC in 1989, Dunaway's leadership has catapulted BTCC to the forefront of the financial services training industry.
About Primedia Workplace Learning
Primedia Workplace Learning, a PRIMEDIA company, is the leading provider of Integrated Learning Solutions for more than 8 million professionals in the industrial, healthcare, banking, automotive, fire & emergency, government, and law & security markets. Primedia Workplace Learning's unique offerings include the world's largest satellite-delivered distance learning services; CD-ROM, Web-based and video training programs; and an Internet-enabled learning management system, which better enables corporations and government agencies to manage, track and measure their in-house training efforts. This unparalleled combination of content, custom solutions, technology and "any time/anywhere" delivery represents the state of the art in the fast-growing business-to-business training market. For more details on Primedia Workplace Learning, visit www.pwpl.com.
About Primedia Workplace Learning's BTCC
Primedia Workplace Learning's Bankers Training and Consulting Company-BTCC-is the leading provider of training programs for financial institutions. BTCC offers the Must Have Training library in video, computer-based, network, Intranet and Internet formats. The Must Have Training library covers key training requirements including compliance, security and fraud, customer contact and more. Additional information on BTCC can be found at www.btcc.com
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