Heroes in Business - Experian Identity Report with Michael Bruemmer, How Consumers Can Protect Themselves From Fraud

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Experian Identity Report with Michael Bruemmer, How Consumers Can Protect Themselves From Fraud. Michael Bruemmer is the VP of Consumer Protection at the Experian Global Data Breach Resolution Group, discussing the different scams to watch out for and how consumers can manage their digital footprint with David Cogan Host of the Heroes Show and Founder of Eliances entrepreneur community.  

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. Yes, yes, yes. It's the Experian Identity Report on Eliance's. And we are bringing with you these special reports with the world's leading experts about the game-changing impact of identity and the need to use reliable data to make confident decisions

that will safely accelerate customer engagement. This week, we're joined again by Michael Bremer, who leads the Global Data Breach Resolution Group at Experian. That's right. He serves as Vice President of Consumer Protection. And Michael, we are looking forward to learning more about the different scams to

watch out for and how consumers can manage their original footprint and protect themselves from these cyber criminals. You could reach Experian by going to Experian.com forward slash data breach. All right. So Michael, let's jump right in. Scams, scams, scams. What were some of the biggest consumer scams of 2022 that you've seen? Well, first of all, David, thank you so much for having me. According to the FTC, the number one scam this year continues to be identity theft. There was a gap of a couple of years where it fell out of the top spot. There was a gap of a couple years where it fell out of the top spot. But prior to that, it had 13 consecutive years of being the number one scam where people steals, people steal other people's personal identity, identity information or health information and use it either to gain access to steal money to get health care services.

Second, imposter scams. And with about $3.5 trillion of stimulus funds that were given during the pandemic, the imposter scams amounted to about $100 billion, according to the Secret Service. Next, debt collection scams, where an unscrupulous debt collector buys debt that you think you've already paid and then hounds you for additional payments. Business email compromise, which is important, especially to your listeners who are entrepreneurs. This is where somebody sends you an email, maybe asking for money or access, and especially prevalent now with the work from home businesses. And finally, around the holidays, everybody's looking for extra cash, prizes, lotteries, and sweepstakes. The old adage is, if it appears to be too good to be true, it actually is. Wow. So how can we as consumers protect ourselves from cyber criminals?

My list of top four things are pretty simple and easy to do. You just have to follow them. First, don't click on any links. No matter if they're from even someone that you know, someone could have compromised their email or their phone account. Second, block all non-contact or people you don't have in your address book callers. Don't accept those. If somebody needs to get a hold of you, they'll try multiple times. They'll text you or another means. Update your home cybersecurity profile. Make sure you have a secure Wi-Fi password. Make sure you're using encryption and make sure if you have a paid for virtual private network, which you can buy, use that, which will protect you. And then turn on

two-factor authentication that allows you to have a second factor to get into your network so somebody can't take it over. And then finally, I know it's hard around the holidays with the connection on social media, but try to stay off social media, limit your exposure, and for sure, don't disclose any of your personal identity information on your network. Excellent, excellent. I mean, this is great, great information. So what should consumers do though? I should say not if but perhaps when they receive a data breach notification letter from a business. I mean I continue to seem to become so popular I receive many of them. Yeah the

the average consumer according to our records would receive between five and six notifications of a data breach from all sources in 2022, which is a lot. And that letter is going to tell you three important things. What happened, why it happened, and how do you protect yourself? So first and foremost, take it seriously. Make sure that you read it carefully. If you have any questions, there'll be an 800 number for you to call and ask. And finally, and most importantly, if identity theft protection or other protection methods are offered, take advantage of them, enroll in the product, and then you have access to other resources that

can help you resolve your issue. Excellent. Excellent. Well, again, we have with us Michael Bremer, Vice President of Consumer Protection, Global, global data breach resolution group at Experian. You can reach him. Go to Experian.com forward slash data breach. That's Experian.com forward slash data breach. Because you're watching and listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliance's Hero Show. the alliances hero show you can certainly listen and we recommend it going to other episodes by experian too at alliances.com that's e-l-i-a-n-c-s.com and click on the radio link there so how does michael uh identity protection products that experian offers consumers work Experian offers consumers work. Our product is called Identity Works. And the basis of all of the Identity Works offerings are that you're going to get 24 by 7 real time monitoring of your credit file. You'll get access to a new updated credit report.

So you choose to use it every single day. So you might have something happen. You take some actions, you can immediately check, and in fact, if you've done that update. It will also monitor for any activity of your personal identity information on the dark web. If someone has stolen it and wants to resell on the dark web, you're going to get an alert about it. We also have a million dollar identity theft protection

insurance policy, which will cover the cost if you suffer identity theft and have to spend money with assistance or even up to $10,000 worth of lost funds in a wire transfer. And then finally, the most important thing, David, that we have is access to a dedicated fraud resolution agent. They'll help you anytime you call in with any question you have. And this access is good for as long as you need it. Even if you only have one year of identity theft protection that's offered, you can call two, three, four years later and still have free access. That's great. So when somebody goes to Experian.com forward slash data breach, what information are they seeing there? We have resources for businesses, how to protect themselves and prepare for a data breach.

The same thing for consumers. It will have any of our updated data breach protection information as well as consumer tips. And then all of our predictions for 2023 will also be on the site for any businesses there. So it's the one-stop shop if you need anything about identity theft or data breach. That's fantastic. I mean, we can't thank you enough for being here today.

I mean, Michael, you help consumers protect themselves from cyber criminals that's the hero this has been the experian identity report with michael bremer vice president of consumer protection at experian on the alliance's hero show so be sure to go to experian.com forward slash data breach. That's Experian.com forward slash data breach. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show. Thank you very much. Thanks, David.