In time of war, the risk of identity theft is the last thing American military professionals want to worry about — let alone try to detect or resolve on their own while deployed overseas. To help alleviate this concern, Armed Forces Insurance, a company providing property and casualty insurance to military professionals for over 120 years, announced today a partnership with CyberScout® that brings the nation’s premier identity theft services to all its policyholders at no extra cost.
"Identity theft is of significant concern to our people, and we feel it's our duty to provide them with the best available resolution service if they should fall victim to the crime,” said Bill James, Vice President of Armed Forces Insurance Exchange. “By partnering with CyberScout to provide these services at no cost to our policyholders, Armed Forces Insurance is letting our people know that their security and peace of mind are our first priority.”
"Unfortunately, military professionals are at high risk for identity theft," said CyberScout CEO Sheryl Christenson. "They face the same identity theft risk factors as the rest of us, from stolen wallets and mail theft to having personal information compromised in a database breach. On top of that, the realities of military life make early detection and effective response extremely difficult. The result is that when they do get hit, the damage can be very serious and long-lasting, unless they receive timely assistance from a fraud specialist to resolve the problem."
Arizona-based CyberScout, the leading provider of identity theft education and resolution services, provides an expert personal advocate who works one-on-one to assist policyholders through all of the challenges of identity and credit restoration. The company's resolution service is designed to reduce the time, stress, financial impact, and other costs suffered by identity theft victims, and to simplify the process for all involved.
As part of the partnership, Armed Forces Insurance policyholders will also have free access to a unique service developed by CyberScout to assist victims of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. As disaster victims deal with such identity-related issues as emergency authentication, verification, and access to financial institutions and records, the Identity Disaster Response service (IDR911™) provides a single point of assistance to help them navigate the credit and financial networks and deal with governmental bureaucracies and red tape. The IDR911 service also provides identity theft and incident response solutions for disaster-related database compromise events.
"Our partnership with CyberScout enables us to demonstrate our genuine concern for the well-being of our members by providing them with a service that will get them through the long and frustrating identity theft recovery process," said Tom Dials, Chairman and CEO of Armed Forces Insurance Exchange. "Taking care of each other is part of the military culture, and this service is an extension of that culture to the professionals we serve."
"The virulent crime of identity theft is sweeping America," said Steve Christenson, President of CyberScout. "We're honored to help protect our military men and women and their families from this menace, and we're happy to be extending our network of care by joining with Armed Forces Insurance to provide this essential service to its policyholders."
CyberScout Resolution Service
If a policyholder becomes a victim of identity theft, CyberScout assigns an expert personal advocate to guide and assist them through the entire process of restoring their credit and identity, at no cost to the victim — one-on-one, step-by-step, from start to finish. CyberScout's identity theft resolution service includes:
- Unlimited one-on-one access to an expert personal advocate
- Fraud alerts placed with all three credit bureaus
- Step-by-step review of credit reports from all three bureaus
- Assistance preparing the Fraud Victim Affidavit and all other needed documents
- Assistance notifying all relevant businesses, agencies, and institutions
- Assistance replacing checks, credit cards, and debit cards
- A full year of credit monitoring and fraud monitoring
- A full year of active follow-up after resolution
All services also apply to immediate family members
In addition to identity theft resolution services, all policyholders have access to CyberScout's proactive educational material through a dedicated web site, found at www.afi-idtheft.org.
