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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Trinity, NC, United States, 09/01/2009 - The FTC estimates over 11 million businesses and institutions must be compliant with their Red Flags Rule by November 1. Fines for non-compliant operations that unwittingly sell a product or service to an identity thief could total millions.
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Attorney James B. Rivenbark announced today the most comprehensive compliance solution available for those businesses or institutions affected by the FTC’s Red Flags Rule. Along with co-developer, Larry White, CCA, their Red Flags Comp (redflagscomp) site allows designated businesses or institutions to bring compliance directly to their operation 24/7 through a 1-year subscription.
According to Rivenbark, “The FTC pushed the Red Flags Rule mandatory compliance date up to November 1, 2009 because retail merchants such as furniture, appliance, mattress, jewelry, etc., had no idea this complicated law would affect them. Even healthcare institutions such as hospitals, physicians, medical clinics, and assisted living facilities were unaware they were designated to comply. As a result everyone has questions regarding Red Flags compliance, but very little guidance in developing the required written Program and Compliance Training. We recognized this dilemma and framed six compliant Programs and online Training solutions, all customized specifically for each type of business’s compliance requirements.”
The most important element of Red Flags Rule compliance may well be the required formal staff training.
“Our On-Demand Compliance Training Module was voted most effective, and believe it or not, most interesting, by a recent focus group”, says White. “The patent pending, movie-style session was created with sound and customized to comply specifically with the requirements for each individual type of business. As a special benefit, each staff member must register before viewing the Training Module and a Knowledge Test immediately follows the session.”
“Testing is not required under the Red Flags Rule”, explains Rivenbark. “However, in the event a business unwittingly sells a product or service to an identity thief, such visible effort to comply goes a long way in litigation and creates the best legal defense possible.”
Designated businesses or institutions must also deploy searches of outside data sources such as the SSN Verification Service, the SSN Death Master File, and numerous state and federal data bases to verify information presented by an individual opening an account, and also to authenticate the actual identity of the individual presenting the information.
“If a business or institution does not have a process in place to authenticate the actual identity of the individual, they may only be verifying stolen identity information from an identity thief that is actually present in their place of business. This opens the door for fines, civil litigation, or class actions in the millions which are available under the Red Flags Rule”, says Rivenbark.
Red Flags Comp includes an Identity Verification Scan for subscribers which searches across over 30 million data sources and provides a printable report in less than two seconds at only a small cost per scan. Also included in the report are five “Challenge Questions” allowing businesses to authenticate the actual identity of the individual.
A comprehensive list of businesses or institutions affected by the Red Flags Rule is available on redflagscomp.com, in addition to samples of Red Flag Rules Compliance Training, Programs and the Identity Verification Report. All services are web-based with no additional hardware or software to purchase.
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white[.]redflagscomp.com 
