NORWALK, Conn., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Affinion Group, a leading global affinity marketer, has launched a sophisticated new tool that uses cutting- edge public records, Social Security number and credit card monitoring technology to fight ID theft - the fastest growing crime in America.
Branded ID Secure, this revolutionary new solution arms consumers with an unprecedented way to proactively manage their identity information and avert potential ID theft and fraud.
"These revolutionary new technologies keep consumers one step ahead of would-be ID thieves, and is perhaps their best chance of avoiding identity- related criminal abuse," said Frank Abagnale, an Affinion Group spokesperson, former master forger and leading fraud prevention expert, whose life story inspired Steven Spielberg's movie Catch Me if You Can. "Punishment for fraud and recovery of stolen funds is so rare, prevention is the only viable course of action. Combining these comprehensive technologies into ID Secure provides unsurpassed prevention."
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America, with 27.3 million victims in the past five years, and nearly 20 million in the past two years alone, according to a study from Javelin Strategy & Research. This crime costs more than $56 billion, or $6,383 per victim, annually, and has become so prevalent, that an identity thief strikes on average every 3.5 seconds.
ID Secure fights ID theft with these innovative weapons: * Public records management and control, called a Personal Information Profile - this powerful tool delivers a comprehensive report of consumers' public records, so they can detect potential public record manipulation. It also shows others who have similar identities (i.e.: similar names, address, age), so consumers can be aware of potential mistaken identity before it happens. * Proactive personal data, social security number and credit card monitoring, called Data Sweep - that monitors your name, address, phone and other personal information in certain Internet directories, with tools to request removal of the information from the public eye. Proprietary technology scans billions of public records to detect unauthorized activity, including attempts to manipulate your SSN to create a synthetic identity. And, a real time early warning system protects you from credit card fraud - before it happens. * ID theft resolution & insurance - A dedicated caseworker will assist victims of ID theft with restoring their names. Victims also receive up to $10,000 in ID theft insurance (no deductible), that covers certain legal fees, lost wages and other out-of-pocket expenses. * ID scoring, education & awareness - an online National Fraud Score survey assesses an individual's vulnerability to identity theft, identity manipulation or mistaken identity. Resources, tools and tips on fraud prevention and public record management are also available.
"As a leader in credit monitoring and identity theft protection, we are excited to incorporate these advanced technologies into our suite of solutions that includes PrivacyGuard, PC Safety Plus and HotLine," said Tom Rusin, chief revenue officer and general manager of Affinion Group. "Our new protection products are ushering in a new era of identity fraud protection that will benefit Affinion's more than 4,500 marketing partners and their customers across multiple industries."
Affinion Group was the first to develop a membership credit monitoring product in 1992, and remains one of the largest providers of identity theft solutions in the U.S. The next frontier in ID theft and fraud protection is ID scoring, which assesses vulnerability to ID theft, manipulation and mistaken identity.
According to a recent Gartner Inc. report, "identity scoring for consumers will overtake credit report monitoring as an effective ID theft prevention tool by the end of 2009," said Dr. Harold Kraft, CEO of MyPublicInfo.
About Affinion Group
Affinion Group has established itself as a premiere security, credit monitoring and identity theft protection innovator. It launched HotLine, a leading ID theft, credit card, fraud protection and security service in 1969. PrivacyGuard, a comprehensive membership credit monitoring product which was created in 1992, remains one of the largest in the U.S. Other ID theft protection services in Affinion's thriving security business include PC SafetyPlus, an identity theft software service that protects members with a personal firewall to thwart hackers and other online ID threats. PC SafetyPlus software features automatic updates and service upgrades for protection against prevailing computer viruses, spyware and worms.
About MyPublicInfo
About CardCops
CardCops protects consumers from identity theft by providing them with the means of determining whether their credit card, social security number, or other personal information has been compromised, even before it is used to commit a crime; and helps global Internet merchants reduce losses due to fraud by identifying transactions involving stolen credit cards. CardCops collects compromised data from cyberspace and makes it available in "real time" to consumers, merchants and banks. CardCops began scouring cyberspace for compromised personal and financial information in 2000, and has supplied information to the Credit Card Associations, the FBI, the Secret Service, various Attorneys General offices, and other law enforcement agencies. What is unique about much of the data found by CardCops is that it has not yet been used maliciously, and therefore enables the CardCops customer to take pro- active steps to prevent identity theft and fraud from occurring.
About Edentify, Inc.
Edentify, Inc. ("Edentify"), headquartered in Bethlehem, Pa., was formed in August 2004 with the objective of becoming the leading organization in the field of developing and deploying data analysis technology solutions for preventing identity theft and fraud. It is currently a later development-stage company and expects shortly to begin a period of increased growth. Edentify will seek to fulfill its goals by analyzing the means by which identity crimes are perpetrated and through the development of new technologies and procedures to assist corporations, the government and consumers in the fight against identity fraud and related crime.
Edentify owns the intellectual property rights to two strategic approaches towards the detection and prevention of identity fraud.
One is a patented information-based approach that analyzes identity data information for individuals in large databases and is capable of detecting and scoring incidences of identity manipulation and potential theft (Identity Quotient Index(TM)). The forerunner of this technology is currently used in screening identities used for new checking account applications at nearly every major bank in the U.S. Edentify will continue to market this technology to other areas of the financial services industry, as well as to large healthcare organizations and local, state and federal governments.
Affinion Group
