Proactive Vs. Reactive Identity Theft Protection

As many of you know, Authentium is currently rolling out SafeCentral, a solution we consider the best identity theft protection solution on the market.


SafeCentral is the result of almost five years of core R&D (what used to be called VirtualATM is now the SafeCentral client), three years of service back-end development (our ESP platform), and a ton of feedback from users and distributors.

The purpose of this posting is to point out a critical difference between our service and other approaches to "identity theft protection."

The critical distinction between SafeCentral and other solutions offered up as "Identity Theft Protection" is that our solution is designed to *protect* identities - as in stop them from being stolen in the first place.

Other solutions are designed mainly to help consumer *reclaim* their assets - after their identity has been stolen.

These other solutions, well-branded and well-intentioned, don't provide proactive protection - they simply provide a financial guarantee that there will be money available for you if you need to hire lawyers to get your identity back.

As anyone who has ever had their identity stolen knows, there is a massive difference between these two approaches.

Using SafeCentral is like going into war already "armored-up" - using the other solutions is like going into battle, being wounded, and getting hauled off to hospital - and then finding out, as you fight for your life, that your health insurance is paid up.

I have only had my identity compromised once - when money was claimed by an impostor at the other end of a Singapore-USA international money transfer. Getting the money recovered was painful. It took a lot of international phone calls and three days of haggling.

I have been told that my experience was on the "lighter side" of identity fraud cases. According to the most recent statistics, identity theft victims typically spend a year and a half and around $2500 dollars getting things rectified.

This is the core reason why installing a proactive solution is important - as anyone knows, most of the time, you get your money back when defrauded online. What people don't know is how much of a hassle it is to get square., using a "reactive" solution.

When it comes to identity theft protection, Authentium SafeCentral = proactive, the rest = reactive. You decide.

Note: If you're interesting in joining the beta program and trying out the SafeCentral service for free, you can sign up here.