Boost Employees’ Financial Wellness with Identity and Privacy Protection Benefits

The pandemic has taken an economic toll. Americans face staggering financial uncertainties—more than 30 million people filed first-time unemployment claims in a six-week period, and those still in the workforce worry about job security.

In the best of times, money worries can oppress us. A PricewaterhouseCoopers 2019 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that 59% of employees are stressed about their finances, from monthly expenses to retirement savings. Now, of course, these fears have intensified.

Financial wellness programs are more critical than ever. But many of these programs overlook one of the most immediate threats to employees’ financial and emotional wellness: protection against identity theft and fraud.​ That’s a significant omission since the PwC survey revealed that 20% of employees say they’ve been a victim of identity theft.

COVID-19 Amplifies Employees’ Identity and Privacy Risks

Threats to employees’ identities and privacy have spiked, as hackers exploit COVID-19 fears with coronavirus-themed phishing emails and other scams. Since the stay-at-home-order began, IDX’ members have experienced a 50% increase in the number of targeted scams and phishing attacks via email, call, and texts.

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With this stolen personal data, identity thieves are able to cause catastrophic damage to their victims’ finances. The methods in which they wreak havoc may change, but the damage is the same.

Sometimes funds are stolen directly using phished passwords or account takeovers, but often a criminal will use a stolen ID to take out loans, apply for new credit cards, or rent property. All of this can show up as massive debt against the victim’s identity, impeding their ability to acquire housing, transportation, loans, medical treatment, and more. ​

Even worse, problems from a stolen identity can keep cropping up for years, and resolving identity fraud can take an average of six months and 100 to 200 hours of an individual’s time. A survey by the Identity Theft Resource Center found that:

• 32% of respondents said identity theft caused problems for them at work (either with their boss or coworkers).
• Almost 40% used savings to address their needs.
• Nearly 43% went into debt.
• Almost 41% could not pay their bills.

Some respondents also said they lost job opportunities or lost their current employment because of identity theft. Others cited issues with benefits, including pay being withheld or insurance benefits being denied.

Early Detection Is the Best Protection

Early detection can help prevent your employees from identity theft due to COVID-19-related phishing attacks or other scams. And, if identity theft does happen, detection can help discover the crime early on, lessening the impact on victims and expediting recovery time.

When evaluating identity and privacy protection solutions for your employees, look for these three key detection capabilities:

• Social media detection: 53% of social media logins are fraudulent, so social media detection and monitoring should help detect frauds and scams, including fraudulent links, phishing attacks, and malware.
• Deep and dark web detection: The Internet we use every day for social media, news, shopping, and browsing makes up only 10% of the entire worldwide web. Therefore, deep and dark web detection should be complete, thoroughly scanning billions of records, open web sources, underground forums, black markets, and remote corners of the web.
• Child identity detection: Identity thieves can use a child’s Social Security number to apply for government benefits, open bank and credit card accounts, apply for a loan or utility service, or rent a place to live. Parents and guardians can check with the national credit bureaus to see if a credit report has been established in their child’s name and look for warning signs that their child’s SSN might be compromised—such as a bogus tax return or benefits in their child’s name.

The days ahead are uncertain at best, and your employees are turning to you for reassurance. As you evaluate best how to help them, consider adding identity protection benefits to your financial wellness program. It can offer your employees a sense of safety and peace of mind in these turbulent times.

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