We’re entering a new year full of new resolutions about saving more money, sticking to a budget, or paying off debts. But as much as people tend to make resolutions around their finances, how many people are protecting their money against fraud? 

Millions of dollars are lost to cases of fraud and identity theft every year. 2020 saw an uptick in fraudulent cases exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. The IRS has warned people of a text message scam tricking people into revealing secure bank account information to receive a stimulus check, but even more prominent is a widespread case of fraudulent unemployment claims. 

A ring of criminals has been stealing Social Security numbers and other personally identifying information to file for unemployment in multiple states, taking advantage of the massive increase in unemployment due to the pandemic. ID Sanctuary™, our identity theft monitoring and resolution service, used to see about one of these unemployment fraud cases a month. Now, they manage hundreds a week. These cases became so frequent ID Sanctuary formed a special taskforce to handle them. 

This issue hits close to home. One of our clients’ groups had more than 20 fraudulent unemployment cases in their office, and the New Benefits office, which has under 100 employees, had three cases ourselves. It serves as a reminder that identity theft and fraud can happen to anyone, any time.

When people feel unsafe, they want security. Identity theft monitoring and resolution services, like ID Sanctuary, protect employees with best practices to prevent identity theft and unlimited 24/7 restoration assistance when their identity is compromised. ID Sanctuary even tackles cases that started before employees gained access to their services, and will go the extra mile to initiate contact with employees identified as needing resolution. 

As current cases of fraud continue to increase and we see warnings for new cyberthreats to expect in 2021 (including deepfakes and machine learning hacks), providing identity theft protection is crucial. As a non-insured benefit, ID theft monitoring and resolution can be offered at any point in the year, so there’s no need to wait for the next open enrollment. 

If you’re ready to provide your groups with ID theft monitoring and resolution, contact our benefit pros at NewSales@NewBenefits.com.