Ok – back to the purpose of this blog. I am hearing from way too many groups about the FTC doesn’t specifically call out my industry. Heck – they never said anything about computer consultants, but they do say that if you send out invoices, you are pretty much in the group.
It is not hard. Most of the it common sense – in fact, if you follow the guidelines, you should simply check behind the ID. If you do that – the business would avoid the majority of the ID fraud that is on the news each and every day. I seen quite a few cases this week on twitter. In reading the news, almost every one of the cases involved someone presenting an ID that is not them. Most of the time the person is fictitious or another age. This is a good thing to do regardless.
I hear businesses complaining that it is just too complicated to create a program. That is a joke. I have personally seen businesses go online and sign up with IDSure.org In a record of about 10 minutes to a high of 20 minutes, they are signed and have a Red Flags Policy in place.
Cool – so what is the cost?? Well, that is the simple part – their basic plan is a whopping $69.95 a month. Most businesses, I talk with are between $70 and $200 a month for a small to medium size business. If you use the Red Flags Blog coupon code – ERF2307 when you sign up – you save 10% forever. If you sign up by August 1st, they will take you through the wizard to get your policy created for free and you get double the first months ID Verifications to get caught up on those existing customers.
To Summarize:
Free Red Flags Rule Program Policy
Double the ID Verifications for the 1st month to help you get caught up
Best Service in the business
Administration panel to control access in your firm. – This is good if you don’t want the bosses son checking out last nights date.
Any questions – feel free to ask me.
11:13 am on July 27th, 2009 1
When I first read about the FTC’s red flags at the beginning of the year I thought it was just going to be another complicated rule that no one ever complies with or understands. Having now spoke with idsure I can now say that I understand why its important and why I need to comply. The main reason being I do not want to responsible for someone losing thousands of Dollars if they do business with me and as a result of that being fined thousands of Dollars myself.
I can personally recommend idsure now that I have spoke with them and implemented their system. We have only been using it a few days but I already feel confident for myself and the rest of my team that there is much less chance of someone using a false identity when they do business with us. When I have explained what we are doing with our customers they have been very positive about it as well as they feel safer.