A senior officer back when I was in college told us mids once about how he had his identity stolen. His SSN had been taken off a check back in the day when military exchanges and commissaries required patrons to write their social security numbers on checks. Very fortunately in Navy terms, he was at a shore command, meaning that he had normal access to a telephone and whatever resources necessary to clear his name, though it was still an absolute pain and could have been much worse than it was.
Not so if you’re talking about a single Sailor underway. No spouse at home to try to take care of it, and no Fleet and Family Support Center. Perhaps there might be plenty of phone calls to the NLSO, but I can’t imagine such a nightmare. The cost of being on the satellite phone so much is scary enough.
Making matters worse, SSNs are what make Navy administration run, period. Recent GMT efforts have surrounded the securing of “PII” (personally identifiable information), but that doesn’t equal immunity by any standard. Making matters worse, everybody knows your FPO address. That alone should be harrowing for anyone on anything equal to or larger than a smallbuoy, let alone a big deck.
Google searching for “identity theft insurance” comes up with doubts over its worthiness. Ultimately, some say, “insurance” is reactive rather than proactive. Preventing having to react is the whole point for somebody underway and unable to wage combat over financial institutions and credit reports.
I looked at two specific services today with interest: LifeLock and TrustedID. LifeLock was the first I’ve heard about, having seen many of their advertisements in airline magazines during some recent overseas flying, and their advertising is especially attention-getting, with their CEO going so far as to advertise his actual social security number to demonstrate his confidence in his company’s product. Despite some apparent hiccups with one of their founders having been involved in credit fraud (irony?), the sleaze looks to be out of the company. I admit that I haven’t seen any advertising for TrustedID, and that LifeLock looks better as a result.
The oddity of it all in this context comes in that whenever an attempt is made to open an account in a customer’s name, they will call you. Oh wait, they can’t when I’m at sea.
Accordingly, I emailed LifeLock today (before finding out about TrustedID) and asked if I could give them my parents’ phone number or have them email me instead of calling me. If I ever need to open an account, I can give my parents advance notice to say yes.
It’s nice to have such good support from back home. Many sailors aren’t so lucky.