September 7, 2009
-
ID Score; Whoever Heard Of It?, Pt.2
What is your ID Score?So what is your ID Score and how can it help credit card customers? Your ID Score helps you identify if someone is using your personal identification to unlawfully obtain credit cards and other personal benefits. The score is not a substitute for a credit history or FICO score; its purpose is to compliment these other traditional methods of monitoring misuse of your personal information. A company in San Diego, ID Analytics designed the ID Score to help individuals determine if someone may be using their personal information to fraudulently obtain, cash, merchandise, or services. Over the past ten years, the ID Score has played a significant role in helping organizations fright fraud including credit card companies, retailers, and government agencies.
The ID Score is derived from a number of statistics based on the various organizations' technology which include name, Social Security number, phone number, date of birth, and address across multiple industries. In addition to a credit cardholder's personal information, ID Analytics' database also contains billions of transactions and over two million known cases of identity fraud. It is considered to be the largest database of fraud in the nation. ID Analytics exchanges information from the Fortune 100 companies, the nation's top credit card companies, and the major telephone companies.
There is generally no direct contact between ID Analytics and the consumer, however, each time an individual applies for or obtains a new wireless phone or credit card, ID Analytics analyzes the information. For example, if an individual uses your name to open up several cell phone accounts, your ID score would reflect it even though your credit report would not. There are many reasons a criminal would like to open cell phone and card accounts in another individual's name. It would allow them to conduct criminal activities that could not be traced back to them.