Identity Theft Prevention Program

As all of you know, identity theft has become an increasing risk for all of us and unfortunately, I'm sure that some of you who are reading this article have already been victims of identity theft. For the majority of people, your identity is your most valuable asset and every precaution should be taken to help protect that asset. Your Cooperative is currently taking even greater precautions to help protect your information that the Cooperative maintains associated with your account.

The Federal Trade Commission has created new rules known as the "red flag rules" as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act. These new rules require your Cooperative to establish an official "Identity Theft Prevention Program" designed to identify, detect and respond to patterns, practices, or specific activities that could indicate identity theft with existing accounts and with the opening of new accounts. The program must include four basic elements:

The identification of relevant red flags for covered accounts
The establishment of a process to detect those red flags
Appropriate responses to detected events
Periodic updates to policies and procedures to reflect changes in risk exposure

Your Cooperative has just implemented new policies and procedures to help protect the identity of all existing members and new members. These policies meet the guidelines as outlined above and should help protect your information from prospective identity thieves.

Unfortunately, some of the new procedures that have been put in place to help protect a member's identity may appear to be more burdensome and time consuming. Some of the new procedures that have been put in place include:

A member requesting new service must provide information to ensure their identity including a valid, Government-issued photo identification as proof of identity.
A member who calls the office to inquire about their account will be asked to provide certain identifying information such as date of birth, address, telephone number, social security number, tax identification number, etc. prior to receiving any information about their account.
A member who visits the office to inquire about an account will be asked to confirm their identity through identifying information including a valid, Government-issued photo identification.
An individual who is not listed on the membership or the account will not be entitled to receive information on that account unless they are listed as an authorized user for the account.

It is unfortunate that your Cooperative must implement these new procedures that make it more time consuming for honest members but the fact is that we must implement these new procedures in order to help protect your identity from identity thieves. Please keep in mind that these new procedures are being implemented to help protect your identity and by being patient with these new procedures, you are helping us protect your identity.