Job Benefits: Identity Theft Assistance

It's always nice when your employer has benefits that help you with the little things in life. Maybe you get discounted gym memberships to help keep in shape. Wouldn't it be nice if they could help out with what some would call today's current blight - identity theft.

Well I've come across a couple of firms that do! Unfortunately it's not the kind of help you might hope for. In fact you could probably say it's a lesson in what not to do to help your employees protect themselves from identity theft.

At least one large, and by large I mean 20+% national market share, 401k provider offers a ripe opportunity for phishing and identity theft. The offer is appealing; in one swipe you can get employment data, name, address, SSN and birth date. To top it off their login is really whack. They require your username to be your SSN and your password can only be a 4 digit PIN.

Normally I wouldn't feel the need to tell the world about something like this but the options they offer to address these issues are almost as dismal. In order to report a problem with the site you must complete a form that offers no encryption containing name, address, birthday and plan information. There is little additional satisfaction to be gained by speaking to a representative who will read you a script of how your information is secured.

Oh, did I forget to mention that all of your beneficiaries' private data like SSN is displayed on this page as well?