More than 10 percent of the households in the Northeast are under the protection of Matt Cullina’s company – and not many people even realize it.
At least not yet.
But say your wallet is stolen or your social security number finds its way into the wrong hands, or there’s a suspicious purchase on your credit card statement, your homeowners or auto insurance policy may offer the services of Identity Theft 911, a data management and security company, to clear things up.
A growing number of insurance carriers are adding protection from ID theft to their product offerings – or making it a no-additional-cost feature of homeowners-and-auto policies – and they’re connecting with companies that specialize in resolving problems that arise from that high-tech crime.
Locally, Warwick-based MetLife Auto & Home and Lincoln-based Amica Insurance both have arrangements with Identity Theft 911, a leader in the industry.
And because the Scottsdale, Ariz., company has a large concentration of clients on the East Coast, it is now opening a branch office in Providence led by Cullina, an executive vice president at Identity Theft 911.
From its Rhode Island location, Identity Theft 911 plans to better manage its East Coast clients and develop more products.
Cullina said last week that the company’s resolution services are provided to about 13 percent of the homes in the region through insurance policies offered by various carriers, although often the feature is branded by the insurance companies themselves.
While Identity Theft 911’s main client base is in the insurance industry, numerous banks, credit unions and colleges use the company’s services, too.
“They then turn around and provide our service to their customers and their employees,” Cullina explained.
Those services include providing support to the Web sites of about 400 clients, issuing security threat alerts and also disseminating educational information. “We’re really strong into education and empowerment as far as knowing how to safeguard against identity theft,” Cullina said.
The company also offers credit and fraud monitoring, and protection against child ID theft and “synthetic” ID theft, when part of someone’s identity is blended with another. “It’s a little bit harder to solve,” Cullina said. “But it can have the same impact as taking your actual ID.”
A lot of Identity Theft 911’s work is done after a theft occurs, when the company’s experts can help individuals navigate through the crisis. Sometimes, they’re called in when it’s not clear a crime was committed.
“If you see something on your credit card bill that doesn’t look right, or you lost your wallet but you don’t know if someone stole it or not, you call into our shop and we’ll work through it with you,” Cullina said.
At MetLife, the service is “embedded” into its claims process, said Cullina, a former MetLife executive. For instance, if a house is burglarized, the customer is referred after filing a claim to Identity Theft 911 to ensure personal information that might have been stolen is not used after the crime.
ID theft has remained a growing problem, topping the Federal Trade Commission’s list of consumer complaints for seven years.
The Identity Theft Resource Center said more than 79 million records were reported compromised nationwide in 2007 – up from almost 20 million records reported in 2006.
The FTC has estimated that the thefts have cost consumers and businesses $50 billion annually.
It was the late 1990s when insurance carriers first started offering products related to ID theft. At first, there was coverage for expenses related to a case of identity fraud.
Then in 2004, carriers started offering ID-theft-resolution services. “It started on the homeowner side, but we’re really starting to see it on the auto side,” Cullina said.
Identity Theft 911 provides services to about 125 insurance carriers nationwide.
Cullina said some carriers are now tying the theft-resolution services to commercial insurance policies.
Companies with a commercial insurance policy with ID theft resolution services may be able to offer similar coverage to their employees and their families as an additional fringe benefit.
Cullina said his company is starting to address identity management issues. For example, Identity Theft 911 can ensure accounts are set up properly at the new address when people move and that all mail is rerouted.
“We don’t want anything going to your old address that could possibly be misused,” he said. •
Identity Theft 911 LLC is a data management and security company based in Scottsdale, Ariz. Additional information is available at www.IdentityTheft911.com.
MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) is a provider of insurance and financial services in the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Its Rhode Island-based MetLife Home & Auto division employs more than 2,000 people at its offices in Warwick. Additional information is available at www.MetLife.com.
Amica Mutual Insurance Co., founded in Providence in 1907, is the nation’s oldest mutual insurer of automobiles. It and its wholly-owned subsidiaries – Amica Property & Casualty Insurance Co., Amica General Agency Inc., and Amica General Insurance Agency of California Inc. – are members of the Lincoln-based Amica family of companies, along with Amica Life Insurance Co. and regional property insurer Amica Lloyd’s of Texas. Additional information is available at www.Amica.com.
