SAN FRANCISCO – Stanford Federal Credit Union has tapped Identity Theft 911's retainer-based RB421 program to help arm its members in the war against identity theft. By paying a fixed monthly fee, Stanford FCU has become the first financial institution in the country to provide free identity theft victim assistance and consumer education to every member. “Our members' privacy and security has always been a top priority for us,” said Stanford FCU President/CEO John R. Davis. “SFCU has not experienced any direct breaches or data compromises and we've taken significant steps to ensure that we never do, but the Identity Theft 911 program is an additional layer in our program to give our members peace of mind.” According to Davis, the flexibility of the program also appealed to the credit union. No additional software or hardware was needed to go live with the program. In addition, Stanford FCU provided customized training classes using a mix of credit union and Identity Theft 911 information. “We can purchase what we need and we look at it figuratively as a coupon book so depending on the situation and gravity we can use those `coupons' as needed,” said Davis. “It was very important to have all members covered because there is no way of knowing ahead of time which members will be impacted by identity theft. So with this program everyone can benefit without compromising privacy. We're not comfortable sharing our members' sensitive information and RB421 means we don't have to.” Here is how it works. Claims are first screened through Stanford FCU's compliance officer for validity, then ID Theft 911 works with victims in a variety of ways such as providing a personal advocate who will follow the case through to its resolution. In addition, Identity Theft 911 provides the credit union the latest scam/fraud alert updates, which complements its existing alert system from sources including CUNA, CUNA Mutual, CO-OP Network and the Secret Service Electronic Task Force. Davis says in the future the credit union may include a link to Identity Theft 911's educational information pages on its Web site. “Identity theft 911 was built from the ground up for one reason- to deal with identity theft,” said Identity Theft 911 CEO Sheryl Christenson. “SFCU has always been a leader in bringing the benefits of technology and innovation to account holders, and doing it right – carefully without endangering members' assets or their personal information. We admire their approach and are pleased they've chosen to be the first institution to offer identify theft services to its members through RB421.” Additional information about the Identity Theft 911 program can be found at www.identitytheft911.com. [email protected]