Intersections, Inc., creator of award-winning Identity Guard, and Harland Clarke Corporation, a leading provider in integrated payment solutions, recently formed a partnership to provide identity theft protection services to more than 11,000 Harland Clarke banking industry clients. The joint venture is part of Intersections Inc. plans for expansion and Harland Clarke’s mission to expand its security solutions and marketing services to the financial industry.

Terms of the Alliance

Under the terms of the agreement financial institutions will be able to provide their customers with two security options. The first option involves the inclusion of Intersections’ Identity Guard services in a checking or banking account plan that the consumer chooses or the account holder can opt into the identity theft protection service as a standalone option.

The service is known as ITAC Sentinel which is provided by Intersections, Inc. and provides the consumer with extended monitoring of credit and personal information. ITAC stands for Identity Theft Assistance Center and provides consumers in financial institutions with assistance in the event their identity is stolen, resolution services, and identity theft protection for sensitive data associated with banking information.

The partnership between Intersections, Inc. and Harland Clarke is partially to fulfill a consumer need and in response to an Identity Fraud Survey Report from Javelin Strategy and Research. The report showed that during the year 2010 approximately 8 million consumers were affected by identity theft with an out-of-pocket cost increase by nearly 63 percent. The average time a consumer spent with the recovery process increased by 53 percent.

Results of the Partnership

The partnership between Intersections Inc. and Harland Clarke will provide a comprehensive identity theft protection approach that will have a broader reach to financial institutions across the United States. It is the hope of both Harland Clarke and Intersections Inc. that the project will bring piece of mind to a greater number of consumers by providing a convenient way to tap into identity theft protection services for their specific financial institution or credit union.

CUNA Strategic Services, Inc. will be promoting the identity theft protection services provided by the partnership between Intersections, Inc. and Harland Clarke to all of its members. CUNA is the Credit Union National Association in which CUNA Strategic Services is a subsidiary. Harland Clarke is a trusted resource by credit unions throughout the United States and more than 90 percent of the credit unions across the US are members of CUNA. Harland Clarke provides integrated payment solutions, marketing services, and security solutions to more than 11,000 banks, credit unions, and major investment firms.

Intersections, Inc. is known for its Identity Guard solution and provides a variety of consumer and corporate identity risk management services. The company formed an exclusive partnership with the Identity Theft Assistance Center which is the national voice for victims of identity theft and identity policy. Intersection Inc. is the exclusive service provider of ITAC Victim Assistance. If the consumer’s financial institution is an ITAC member and supporter, the consumer can be granted access to ITAC services with the identity theft protection services provided by Intersections, Inc.

For more information on Identity Guard’s services, read our Identity Guard review.

Discover Cardholders Misled by Optional Identity Theft Protection and Credit Monitoring Services

Holders of the Discover Card were recently deceived by telemarketers offering optional identity theft protection and credit monitoring services. As a result, the attorney general for the state of Minnesota filed a lawsuit accusing Discover Financial Services of deceptive practices.

Case Details

The case which was filed with the Hennepin County District Court alleges that Discover Financial Services misled Discover Cardholders by using telemarketers to make calls that claimed to be courtesy calls and not a solicitation. As a result, Discover Cardholders were charged with subscriptions to identity theft protection services and credit monitoring services that claimed to track your credit score.

Other Discover Cardholders were coerced to acknowledge approval of statements that were vague or misleading so they had no knowledge that they were actually agreeing to be charged for the service subscription. An investigation was launched due to the number of complaints from consumers in the state of Minnesota.

As outlined in the lawsuit, telemarketers for Discover Financial Services which is the processing company for Discover Card called its customers and made it look like they were simply making sure that the consumer understood all of the benefits that accompanied their Discover Card. Following a vague explanation, Discover Card customers found that they had been enrolled in the identity theft protections services program and a charge was added to their Discover Card.

The lawsuit also defined customer complaints that the telemarketers who called them left out important words in their explanations or speed read the explanation to them making it difficult to follow and comprehend. The telemarketers for Discovery Financial Services also failed to make clear that the customer was buying something and placed more emphasis that a sale was not taking place, according to the lawsuit details.

The accusations were further solidified when the attorney general’s office obtained a recording of a telemarketer speaking to a customer. The telemarketer offered to send information on the identity theft protection service and then rushed through the disclosure and pricing information. When the customer asked if he was buying the identity theft protection service the telemarketer told him that all he was doing is mailing out the information. The next month the charge for the service appeared on the customer’s Discover Card bill.

Company Revenue

As part of the investigation it was found that products such as the identity theft protection and credit monitoring service generated closed to an additional $300 million in revenue during the year 2009 which represented an 18 percent increase from 2008.

The identity theft protection and credit monitoring service is offered to Discover Cardholders for a monthly fee of $12.99. Another program under investigation was the payment protection plan which offers the customer the opportunity to defer payments in the event of hardship at the cost of $.89 on every $100 outstanding balance each month. The investigation for this program results from consumer complaints in the state of New Jersey where deceptive practices were used by telemarketers to enroll Discover Cardholders in the program. Other customers were never called but they were enrolled and the charge was added to their card.

Guard Dog Inc. recently announced the newest addition to their identity theft protection product line in conjunction with a new website upgrade. Guard Dog’s newest product is known as CleanID™ which provides protection for non-credit related data.

Guard Dog CleanID™ allows consumers to view the history of their personal information to monitor any unauthorized use of non-credit related data. Up until the introduction of CleanID™ this type of information was very difficult to monitor. The inception of CleanID™ bridges a gap between personal information and monitoring your credit according to the Federal Trade Commission since credit monitoring services only account for up to 15 percent of identity theft crime detection.

How CleanID™ Works

When customers subscribe to Guard Dog CleanID™ they are provided with a collection of reports that contain history of personal information including social security number usage, address changes, names, aliases, court and criminal records, and sex offender reports along with a one million dollar insurance policy and restoration services in the event of unauthorized use of your personal information. The CleanID™ service is available for a one-time fee of just under eight dollars and clients begin receiving reports within 24 hours of subscribing to the service.

Credit monitoring services are quite common however monitoring of personal information is not as widely available and is very difficult to locate. Guard Dog predicts that CleanID™ will open up new opportunities for additional identity theft protection services that provide enhanced protection for consumers.

CleanID Focuses on a Market Gap

Non-credit related information instead of credit information makes up about 85 percent of what identity theft criminals target and yet it is difficult to find an identity theft service that helps protect consumers against theft of this type of information. Criminals opt for theft of non-credit related information because it is much harder to detect than theft of credit and banking information.

CleanID™ addresses the problem consumers face with the inception of new technologies that broaden the scope of identity theft for criminals and opens up more opportunities for the theft of personal information. By adding CleanID™ to the arsenal of comprehensive identity theft protection services consumers get enhanced coverage while Guard Dog is placed in a leadership position in the industry.

Guard Dog ID

Guard Dog ID provides comprehensive identity theft protection which includes credit reports and scores that are accessible from a secure member dashboard, payday loan monitoring services which track multiple databases of information, credit monitoring services, online monitoring of personal information being sold on the black market, comprehensive restoration services with one million dollar identity insurance and much more. These services coupled with CleanID provide the consumer with sound identity theft protection services.

Guard Dog also provides identity theft and data breach solutions for institutions including small to medium-sized businesses, educational organizations, healthcare organizations, government agencies, and enterprise business. The company also provides resources for educating consumers and institutions on identity theft and its consequences as well as the importance of obtaining identity theft protection.

For more information on Guard Dog’s identity theft services, read our detailed Guard Dog ID review.

In Alabama, police arrested a woman on suspicion of identity theft. She later confessed to using the Social Security numbers of her own children to obtain credit cards, and is now charged with four counts of identity theft.

According to a story published on WAFF.com, Kayla Miranda Latham was arrested by Lawrence County Sheriff’s Investigators after it was found that she had used the personal information of her two small children to fraudulently obtain credit. She is currently being held in jail, and the children are under the care of another member of the family. Her case underlines the growing problem of identity theft involving victims who are children.

For more information on identity theft protection services, read our lifelock review here.

Here’s another story about why you need identity theft protection.

Police found it easy to bust a Georgia woman for identity theft after she ordered pizzas using a stolen credit card and had them delivered to her home. The victim, a California victim, reported to police that someone had used her credit card for fraudulent purchases, including paying an electric bill and ordering the pizzas.

When officials arrived to the home where the pizzas were delivered, 41-year-old Tawana Bendon confessed to using the woman’s credit card and name. She was arrested on the spot, and will face at least one charge of identity theft.

Police now believe that Bendon was responsible for many other cases of identity theft. According to the Atlanta Journal, police later found two truckloads worth of evidence that 41-year-old Tawana Bendon had received the California victim’s credit card, along with personal information from other identity theft victims, through an identity thief based in South Africa. The investigation is continuing, with the U.S. Secret Service now assisting local police.

As rates of cybercrime rise, identity thieves are becoming more sophisticated to escape detection. A recent article in the Sacramento Bee highlights a few of the ways cybercrime methods have evolved. One new way thieves are getting away with personal information targets those filling up their gas tank. In Los Angeles, a man has been charged with 42 counts of identity theft, after allegedly installing a device on gas station pumps that allowed him to steal the numbers from credit and debit cards that were swiped for payments on that machine. Prosecutors think he got away with at least $160,000 through more than 200 separate transactions on the rigged machine.

Another scam, which California’s Franchise Tax Board has recently been warning consumers about, involves fake emails to taxpayers. These emails claim that the recipient’s online payment of taxes was unsuccessful. When the victims clicked on a link within the email, the scammers stole their personal information.

It’s more important than ever to take steps to protect yourself from these sophisticated attacks. Consider an identity protection service that scans public databases as well as your credit report.

The security breach occured from 2006 to August, 2008, when a senior analyst for Countrywide downloaded personal data – including mortgage details, social security numbers, birthdates, and credit card information – from up to 20,000 customers per week, later selling the data to be used for identity theft.

Customers of Countrywide were left at high risk for identity theft as a result of the theft of personal information from the bank. All 17 million customers are eligible for no-cost credit monitoring service to protect their personal information. This service will continue for two years to catch unauthorized credit activity arising as a result of the bank’s security breach. Those whose identities were stolen as a result of the breach are eligible for up to $50,000 in compensation, provided that they are able to prove the loss.

The latest study showed that more than 11 million people’s identities were stolen during 2009. Of these, young adults took the longest to notice the unauthorized charges, leading to the highest loss rate. As a result of identity theft, college-aged victims lost an average of $1,100 each.

Perhaps surprisingly, the thieves are often someone the students know, even their own roommates and friends. According to Tom Bartholomy, President of the Better Business Bureau, “The highest incidents of identity theft are from people you know;” not the stereotypical thief hacking into a computer or going through your trash for your personal data, but someone in a position to know the information.

Though the hotel has been assisting investigators, disturbingly, authorities have been unable to trace the breach. Whether the hotel’s credit card system was hacked or a dishonest employee stole the information, what is clear is that credit card information is not safe with any industry. This is not an isolated case. Similar cases of identity theft have also occurred in the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles, as well as the Driskill Hotel of Austin, Texas.

What can you do to protect your personal information following a hotel stay? After traveling, monitor your credit card statements closely for at least three months to catch any unauthorized charges.

It may also be wroth your while to check out the many top rated identity theft protection services reviewed on this site.

Leon, with a population of more than one million, intends to become the ““most secure city in the world” thanks to this technology. During the first phase, the scanners are being installed at security checkpoints. They will also be used by law enforcement, though the details are still in the works. Eventually, there are plans for these devices to be installed in shopping malls, medical centers, mass transit hubs, and banks.

According to the company behind this revolutionary iris scanning technology, Global Rainmakers, these iris scanners have the capability of discerning identities even when the people are in motion or standing at a great distance from the scanners. Your irises may become a unique key tied to your identity– those with the scanners may be able to gain access to your personal information, including medical records. According to Jeff Carter, Global Rainmakers CDO, “in the future, whether it’s entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris.”

He envisions that every person, place, and thing on the planet will be connected to the iris system developed by Global Rainmakers in under a decade. Though there are no plans yet to install this technology in the United States, the possibility certainly exists especially with the growing problem of identity theft. We can be sure that iris scanning technology will remain a hot-button security issue for years to come!