The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal bank regulator agencies, and the National Credit Union administration (NCUA) requires businesses and medical practices to create a written Red Flag Identity Theft Prevention Program as per the Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA), Section 681.2(b)(3).  The program must be in place by November 1, 2008 to avoid penalties and fines. If you are not compliant we will help you become Red Flags compliant now.  Ifida Known Enterprises (I.K.E.) can create the written program for you, tailoring it to your needs and conserving your time, energy, and passion to be focused on what you do best.  

How We Can Help (More...)

    1. Audit (optional but recommended)
    2. Written Red Flags Identity Theft Prevention Program
    3. Program authorized and agreed upon by either board members and/or senior management
    4. Executive and staff trainings
    5. Regular updates to your program 

In the alternative you may buy our Red Flags identity Theft Prevention template, write an identity theft program making sure to cover all the requirements which the FTC has set out and we’ll do your executive and staff training and regularly update your program.    

Tell us how we may serve you best.  We have a few dates left in February, scattered dates in March and we would love to come in and help you as soon as possible.  How would you like to continue?  We can book your appointment right now to become Red Flags compliant without delay.
 

The Rules apply to financial institutions and creditors.  It's easy to tell which are the financial institutions.  These are defined as a 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 deals with transaction actions.

The definition for creditor, however, is not that clear cut.  A creditor is any entity that regularly extends, renews or continues credit or any assignee of an original creditor who is involved with the decision to extend, renew or continue credit.  Creditors include:  

***************************		Auto dealers  Motorcycle dealers  Equities Brokerage		***************************		Credit/Debit Card Issuers  Check Cashers  Finance Companies		***************************
Healthcare services  Insurance companies  Debt Collectors		***************************		Education facilities & schools  Telecommunications  Utility Companies		***************************		Property Managers  Property Landlords  Mortgage Lenders

**Non-profit and government entities who defer payment are also considered as creditors.

Every business, medical practice, school or other creditor must have an individualized written Red Flags Identity Theft Prevention Program, managed by their Board of Directors or senior employee(s), include appropriate staff training and provide supervision of their third party vendors.  The Red Flags, though stated in a general way in the Rules, will be more effective in preventing loss to both individuals and businesses if the red flags are geared to the specific industry which the business is involved in.  The program must also describe appropriate responses that would prevent and mitigate the crime and provide a detailed plan to update the program regularly.  Mitigate means alleviate, lessen, diminish or ease.

As was previously mentioned, the Red Flag Requirements affects creditors with covered accounts.  A covered account is an account used "mostly for personal, family or household purposes that involve multiple payments or transactions."  Such accounts include.

cell phone accounts saving accounts credit card accounts surgery bills school loans auto loans motorcycle loans rental payments & records mortgage loans margin accounts utility accounts checking accounts

**A covered account also includes accounts where there is a foreseeable risk of identity theft such as in small businesses and sole proprietorship accounts.

The Red Flags Program is specifically created to protect the individual and lower the risk of doing business.  You can read this document in its entirety at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt050.shtm. 

The President's Identity theft Task Force describes identity theft as a fraud attempted or committed using identifying information of another person without authority and states that identity theft results in billions of dollars in losses every year to individuals and businesses.  As such the FTC, the federal bank regulatory agencies and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) require each financial institution and creditor that holds any consumer account or other account for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft, to develop and implement an identity Theft Prevention Program for combating identity theft in connection with new and existing accounts.

The program must include reasonable policies and procedures for detecting, preventing and mitigating identity theft and enable a financial institution or creditor to:

• identity patterns, practices and specific activities that are 'red flags' and that could signal identity theft
• detect red flags that have been incorporated into their written program
• respond appropriately to any red flags that are detected
• ensure that their program is updated regularly to reflect changes in risks associated with identity theft
  

•   Complaints to FTC or other government agencies
•   Costly legal issues (criminal & Civil)
•   Embarrassing media coverage
•   Compromised consumer trust and confidence
•   Lowering of examination ratings
•   Loss of business
•   Decrease in vendor confidence
•   Employee status not protected from liability
•   Legal investigations
•   Bankruptcy of business