Identity thieves use people’s personal information to open new accounts and misuse existing accounts, creating havoc for consumers and businesses. Financial institutions and creditors will soon be required to implement a program to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal bank regulatory agencies, and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) have issued regulations (the Red Flags Rules) requiring financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs, as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003. The programs must be in place by November 1, 2008, and must provide for the identification, detection, and response to patterns, practices, or specific activities – know as “red flags” – that could indicate identity theft.
The Red Flags Rules apply to “Financial Institutions” and “Creditors”
• Financial Institution – include state or national bank, a state or federal savings and loan association, a mutual savings bank, a state or federal credit union, or any other entity that holds a “transaction account” belonging to a consumer.
• Creditors – include finance companies, automobile dealers, mortgage brokers, utility companies and telecommunications companies.
Complying with the Red Flags Rules?
Under the Red Flags Rules, financial institutions and creditors must develop a written program that identifies and detects signs or – “red flags” – of identity theft. These may include unusual account activity, fraud alerts on a consumer report or attempted use of suspicious account application documents. These red flags fall into five categories”
• Alerts, notifications, or warnings from a consumer reporting agency;
• Suspicious documents;
• Suspicious personally identifying information;
• Unusual or suspicious activity on an account;
• Notices from customers, victims or identity theft or law enforcement authorities.
CIC Credit is committed to fight against Fraud and offers a wide range of solutions for Red Flag-
• Credit Reports with Hawk Alert,Fraud Sheild, &/orSafeScan
• Stand-alone Reports with verifications from multiple data sources
• Tax Return & Social Verification direct from the IRS
• IdSafeChoice - A proactive report to resolve an incident of identity theft.
CIC offers two free solutions with every credit file
• InstantView - This tool allows the recipent of a CIC credit report to validate the report instantly online without having to repull the file.
• OFAC Alerts - CIC protects all credit reports with free OFAC search and alerts.
More Information, please call 800-352-5882 ext 285.
» Click here for More Information on Red Flags Rules & Regulations : Download Federal Register Vol 72, N0.217/Friday 9, November 2007 / Rules and Regulations
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