by Brian Thompson | Jul 29, 2026 | Uncategorized
Every call to one of defend-id’s identity theft recovery advocates comes from someone who just learned their identity was stolen. Speed matters in that moment, and so does care. Because of that, our Q2 2026 service numbers show how the team performed against the standard we set for ourselves.
Q2 2026 Snapshot: Service Level Results
| Metric |
Q2 2026 Result |
Goal |
| Abandon Rate |
3.0% |
3% max |
| Average Speed to Answer |
0:15 |
0:20 max |
| Calls Answered in 20 Seconds or Less |
82.6% |
80% min |
Abandon rate landed right at our 3% ceiling. Average speed to answer beat goal by five seconds, coming in at 15 seconds against a 20 second max. And 82.6% of callers reached an advocate inside 20 seconds, ahead of our 80% target. Every benchmark met or beat the standard we hold our recovery team to.
Real Feedback: What Our Identity Theft Recovery Advocates Hear
Percentages describe a call center. They do not describe what it feels like to hand a stranger the worst part of your financial life and trust them to fix it. These are the voices behind the Q2 numbers.
“My restoration specialist was awesome. She completely went above and beyond with her service and care. I was so discouraged when learning I was a victim of identity theft. She swung into action from the very beginning and handled the process of gathering and submitting the documents which made my life so easy. I am so thankful. You all have a gem!” Ebony H.
“My restoration specialist did an excellent job helping us fill out all the necessary documentations to report the fraud. She did an outstanding job and was very patient. I have been so unnerved over this entire ordeal however it’s been comforting as she has been very professional and guided us through it all.” Jana S.
“My Advocate was helping me throughout my event & was very polite & truly cared about my situation. I appreciated her very much.” Diane B.
“My Advocate was very professional and great at answering all of my questions.” Morgan C.
Why These Results Matter for HR Leaders
Identity theft recovery can consume dozens of employee work hours when it happens without support. In fact, a recovery advocate who answers fast and stays patient through a stressful process protects more than a credit score. It protects an employee’s focus, their trust in your benefits program, and hours they would otherwise lose to phone trees and paperwork.
HR and benefits teams evaluating identity protection vendors often hear a pitch instead of proof. So ask any vendor for their actual abandon rate, speed to answer, and testimonials before you sign. Most will not have the data to share.
The defend-id Difference
Our identity theft recovery advocates handle every case personally, from first call to final resolution. We train each one to:
- Answer quickly, without routing members through automated menus
- Manage the full recovery process, including credit bureau and institution coordination
- Communicate in plain language throughout the case, not insurance jargon
These are not abstract values. Instead, they show up in an abandon rate at goal, an average answer time well under 20 seconds, and testimonials members write on their own, unprompted.
See the Standard for Yourself
defend-id publishes these numbers every quarter because HR leaders deserve proof, not promises. If you are evaluating identity protection as an employee benefit, compare these results to what your current vendor can show you.
Learn more about how defend-id protects your team at defend-id.com.
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by Brian Thompson | Jul 22, 2026 | Uncategorized
Every school registration form your family fills out this month asks for the same sensitive line: your child’s Social Security number. Add in sports league sign-ups, dentist intake forms, and after-school program paperwork. It is easy to see why child identity theft spikes hard in the final weeks of July and through August every year. This update covers what changed in 2026. That includes two major school data breaches, a set of new state and federal rules, and a checklist for the weeks ahead.
Last Updated: July 2026
This guide is written for two audiences dealing with the same problem from different angles. Parents handling registration paperwork right now want to know what to do differently this year. HR and benefits teams heading into open enrollment planning want to understand why dependent identity coverage keeps coming up. Both threads run through this update.
Why Back to School Is Prime Season for Child Identity Theft
Children make ideal identity theft targets for one simple reason. They have no credit history to contaminate. A stolen adult identity gets flagged the moment a fraudulent charge hits an existing account. A child’s Social Security number can sit unused for years. That gives a thief a clean slate to build on. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has reported a 40 percent surge in child identity theft between 2021 and 2024. Roughly one in fifty children falls victim each year.
Recent research puts numbers on how the damage plays out. About 66 percent of child identity theft cases involve misuse of the child’s Social Security number specifically. The average case costs a family around $2,303 to resolve. The detection gap is the real problem. Nobody checks a child’s credit file, so fraud can run undetected for years. Often the first red flag comes from a lender, a landlord, or a college financial aid office.
Back-to-school season concentrates the risk because it concentrates the paperwork. Registration forms, emergency contact cards, sports physicals, and school photo order forms all ask for a child’s full legal name and birth date. Many still ask for a Social Security number. That paperwork often passes through several hands before it reaches a locked file. Every one of those touchpoints is a chance for the data to end up somewhere it shouldn’t.
The School Breaches Making 2026 a Bigger Risk Year
Two large-scale breaches now sit behind this year’s guidance. Families should understand both.
The PowerSchool breach, disclosed in December 2024, remains the largest confirmed breach of U.S. K-12 student data on record. A single compromised support credential gave an attacker access to records for roughly 62 million students and 9.5 million teachers. The exposed data included Social Security numbers and health information tied to individualized education plans. Fewer than a quarter of affected students had a Social Security number stored in the exposed system. For those who did, the exposure was direct and severe.
In May 2026, Instructure, the company behind the widely used Canvas learning platform, confirmed a separate major incident. The extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility and put the total as high as 275 million user records across nearly 9,000 schools worldwide. Instructure has not confirmed that number, and it spans Canvas’s full global user base, K-12 students through college students and instructors, not U.S. children specifically. Even at a smaller confirmed scope, the breach still hit U.S. districts directly. Several, including schools within New York City’s public system, confirmed impact and had to rotate credentials and reissue guidance to families mid-semester.
These incidents connect to a broader pattern. The Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2026 Trends in Identity Report found that 25.6 percent of identity crime victims now manage two or more concurrent incidents, up from 23.5 percent the year before. Identity theft increasingly compounds rather than resolving on its own. That matters even more for a child victim who may not learn about an incident until years later. Synthetic identity fraud makes the pattern worse. It combines a real Social Security number with fabricated personal details to build a new credit file from scratch. It now accounts for roughly 20 percent of all fraud losses tracked by TransUnion, making it the third-largest fraud category behind scams and account takeovers. Children’s Social Security numbers remain the preferred raw material for this scheme.
New 2026 Rules for Schools and Vendors Handling Your Child’s Data
Three regulatory changes took effect in 2026. Each affects how quickly a school or its vendors must tell you if your child’s data was exposed.
California’s SB 446 replaced the old “reasonable time” notification standard with a hard 30-day deadline. That clock starts when a business discovers or is informed of a breach. Businesses that notify 500 or more California residents must also report to the state Attorney General within 15 days. Oklahoma’s SB 626 marks that state’s first breach-notification update since 2008. It broadens the definition of personal information to include government-issued ID numbers and biometric data. It also requires Attorney General notification for any breach affecting 500 or more residents.
At the federal level, an updated COPPA rule took effect in April 2026. It tightens consent requirements and breach-notification expectations specifically for data belonging to children under 13. Together, these changes push schools and vendors toward faster, clearer disclosure. A faster notification requirement only starts the clock after a breach has already happened, though. None of these laws stop a child’s data from being exposed in the first place. That is exactly why ongoing monitoring matters more than a one-time breach notice.
Protecting Your Child’s Identity: A Back to School Checklist
Use this list as registration paperwork starts arriving this month.
- Freeze your child’s credit now, before anything happens. Federal law lets parents or guardians place a free security freeze on a child’s credit file at any of the three bureaus. Doing it before an incident is far easier than doing it after.
- Ask what a form actually requires before you fill in the SSN field. Many schools accept a state student ID number or leave the field optional. Ask the front office directly instead of assuming the number is mandatory.
- Ask how the school and its vendors store and encrypt student data. You have a right to ask. A school that cannot answer is worth following up with in writing.
- Watch the mail for anything addressed to your child. Credit card offers, collection notices, or IRS correspondence in a minor’s name are early warning signs worth acting on right away.
- Shred anything with your child’s full legal information before you throw it away. Old registration copies and outdated medical forms are common sources of exposure inside the home, not just outside it.
- Use an identity monitoring service that covers dependents. Real-time alerts and dark web scanning catch misuse far faster than a bank statement review ever will.
What Child Identity Theft Means for HR and Benefits Teams
Every parent filling out school forms this month is also an employee. Many of them are your employees. Open enrollment planning season starts soon. That makes this the right window to revisit how dependent identity coverage gets positioned in your benefits package.
Child identity theft has no age floor. Cases involving children under five are well documented. Because the fraud can go undetected for years, an employee may not discover a problem until well after an enrollment window that could have covered it has closed. That is a real gap, not a hypothetical one. It is worth surfacing directly in open enrollment communications rather than leaving dependent coverage as a line item nobody reads.
There is also a productivity angle HR teams do not always connect to identity theft. The ITRC’s multi-layered incident finding means an employee dealing with a compromised child’s identity is often not dealing with one problem. They are juggling credit bureau calls, school communications, and account cleanup. Much of that happens during work hours, because those offices are only open during work hours. A benefit that includes fully managed recovery support does more than protect the family. It gives that employee somewhere else to route the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I tell if my child is a victim of identity theft?
Watch for credit card offers, collection notices, or IRS correspondence addressed to your child. Also watch for a school or health insurer telling you a Social Security number is already in use. Children should not have a credit file at all, so any credit file existing under their name is itself a red flag.
Can I freeze my child’s credit before anything has gone wrong?
Yes, and this is the single most effective preventive step available. Federal law allows a parent or guardian to place a free security freeze on a child’s credit file at each of the three major bureaus at any time, whether or not a breach has occurred.
Does the PowerSchool or Instructure breach mean my child’s identity was stolen?
Not automatically. Both breaches exposed data for millions of students, but exposure and active fraud are different things. Check with your school district about whether your child’s records were affected. Treat a freeze and ongoing monitoring as the response either way.
What is synthetic identity theft and why does it target children specifically?
Synthetic identity theft combines a real Social Security number with a fabricated name, birth date, and address to build a new credit identity. Children’s numbers are attractive because no existing credit file exists to contradict the fabricated details. That lets a fraudulent identity build credit undetected for years.
Do the new 2026 state breach laws apply to my child’s school?
California’s SB 446 and Oklahoma’s SB 626 apply to businesses and entities handling residents’ data in those states. That includes many school vendors and education technology platforms. Coverage depends on where your family and the vendor are located, so ask your district directly which notification rules apply to your records.
Should I ask my employer about dependent identity theft coverage?
Yes. Many employer identity protection benefits already extend to dependents at no added cost, and most employees never ask. If your workplace offers identity theft protection, confirm whether your children are already covered before assuming you need a separate consumer plan.
What should I do first if I find fraud under my child’s name?
File a report at IdentityTheft.gov and with your local police department. Then contact all three credit bureaus to freeze your child’s file and add a fraud alert. Notify any financial institution involved directly, and keep copies of every report and letter until the fraudulent accounts are fully resolved.
Child identity theft is not a once-a-year problem that back-to-school paperwork simply reminds you about. It is a year-round exposure. It gets worse every time a form asks for a Social Security number, and better every time a family or an employer builds in a layer of active monitoring instead of hoping nothing goes wrong. If you found this guide useful, share it with another parent, or with your HR team before open enrollment planning starts. Learn more about how defend-id protects families and employees with real-time monitoring and fully managed recovery support.
Related Articles
by Brian Thompson | Jul 15, 2026 | Uncategorized
Your employees are almost certainly using AI tools at work right now, whether your company approved it or not. An employee AI use policy is the fastest way to get ahead of that reality. Most small businesses still don’t have one. Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found that shadow AI, meaning AI tools used without formal approval, is now the third most common non-malicious insider action detected inside breached organizations. Detections rose fourfold in a single year.
Last Updated: July 2026
Picture the scenario. An HR coordinator pastes a list of new hires, including Social Security numbers, into a free AI tool to draft offer letters faster. A bookkeeper uploads a spreadsheet of vendor payments so an AI assistant can summarize it before a board meeting. Neither person means any harm. Both just handed sensitive data to a system nobody at the company controls, reviews, or even knows is being used.
Shadow AI Is Already Inside Your Company
Shadow AI isn’t a future risk. It’s already running inside most small businesses today. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that 58 percent of small businesses currently use some form of generative AI. That share keeps climbing. A 2026 Founder Reports survey of more than 2,000 U.S. workers found that 44 percent say their employer has no clear AI policy, or they aren’t sure one exists. That gap is worse at the smallest companies. Fifty-nine percent of workers at businesses with fewer than 10 employees report the same lack of policy.
The problem isn’t that employees are being reckless. A 2026 survey from PagerDuty and Wakefield Research found that 66 percent of office professionals have used AI tools at work despite believing those tools were not permitted. More than a third admitted entering customer data into public AI models while doing it. People generally aren’t hiding AI use because they want to break rules. They’re using it because it makes them faster, and because nobody told them where the line is.
What Happens Without an Employee AI Use Policy
Without an employee AI use policy, sensitive data doesn’t stay inside your business. A 2026 survey by cybersecurity firm Anagram found that 58 percent of employees admitted pasting sensitive data, including client records and internal documents, into large language models. Nearly half said they were using AI tools their employer hadn’t approved.
IT leaders are already dealing with the fallout. A 2026 Freshworks survey of IT leaders found that 86 percent had experienced a negative event tied to unauthorized AI use in the past year. A quarter had seen it happen three or more times. Those aren’t abstract numbers. Each one represents a moment when data left a building it should have stayed in.
In April 2026, that risk played out publicly. One employee at a company using the hosting platform Vercel granted a third-party AI tool broad permissions across the organization’s internal systems. That single decision created a trust path attackers later used to breach the platform. Vercel’s own security team didn’t catch it first. The breach surfaced only when the attacker chose to make the stolen data public. No malware was involved, and no password was stolen. One ungoverned integration was enough.
What an Employee AI Use Policy Actually Needs to Cover
A workable employee AI use policy doesn’t need to be long. It needs to answer three questions clearly enough that no employee has to guess.
Which tools are approved, and which aren’t. Name the specific platforms your team can use. That might be a paid enterprise version of a tool, or a vetted alternative your IT provider recommends. State explicitly that free consumer versions of AI tools are off limits for company data. Vague language like “use AI responsibly” leaves too much room for interpretation. That kind of ambiguity is exactly what got Samsung’s engineering team into trouble in 2023, when employees pasted proprietary source code into a public chatbot on three separate occasions in a single month.
What data can never go into an AI tool. List it specifically: Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank account and routing numbers, health information, employee records, customer payment data, and anything covered by a client confidentiality agreement. Generic warnings about “sensitive information” get ignored. Specific examples don’t.
Who reviews AI-generated output before it’s used. AI-written emails, contracts, and customer responses need a human check before they go out. This isn’t about distrust of the technology. It’s about catching the moments when AI produces something inaccurate, off-brand, or built on outdated information before a customer or regulator sees it.
None of this requires new software or a formal audit before you can start. Most small businesses can get workable policy language in place with an hour of focused work. Pick your approved tools. Write down your prohibited data list. Decide who signs off on AI-assisted work before it leaves the building.
The Compliance Angle HR Teams Can’t Ignore
An employee AI use policy isn’t only a security document. It’s increasingly a compliance requirement. When an employee enters a customer’s personal information into a third-party AI tool, your business can lose visibility over where that data goes and how it’s processed. You may no longer be able to say with confidence whether it should have been shared at all. Several state privacy laws already treat that kind of uncontrolled data transfer as a reportable event. More states are adding AI-specific provisions to their breach notification rules every year, which means the compliance bar keeps moving even if your policy doesn’t.
HR teams carry particular exposure here. So much of what they handle, offer letters, benefits enrollment, payroll changes, W-2 data, involves information covered by regulation. Say a member of your HR team pastes an employee’s health plan details into an AI tool to draft a benefits summary. That single action can trigger obligations under HIPAA, state privacy law, or both. Good intentions don’t change what the regulator sees.
This is exactly the kind of organizational risk that a documented, enforced policy exists to prevent. Our guide to 10 essential security policies for small businesses covers the broader framework an employee AI use policy fits into. It walks through credential management, incident response, and data classification in more detail.
When a Policy Isn’t Enough: Where Identity Protection Fits In
A strong employee AI use policy reduces how often sensitive data ends up in the wrong place. It doesn’t eliminate the risk entirely. Employees will still make mistakes. Tools will still get misconfigured. A determined attacker only needs one gap to get in, the way a single over-permissioned AI integration did in the Vercel breach.
That’s the point where policy hands off to protection. When an employee’s Social Security number, address, or financial data ends up exposed through an AI-related incident, the damage isn’t abstract. It’s the specific, personal kind of exposure that leads to fraudulent tax filings, opened credit lines, and months of cleanup on that employee’s own time. Employee identity protection benefits give HR teams a way to catch that exposure early. A recovery advocate can start working the case immediately, instead of leaving affected employees to sort it out alone.
Building AI Governance Without Slowing Your Team Down
None of this has to slow your team down. The businesses handling AI well aren’t the ones banning it outright. They’re the ones giving employees clear rules and an approved path to the productivity benefit without the exposure. Start with three moves this month. Publish your employee AI use policy in writing. Walk through it in a single all-hands meeting instead of burying it in a handbook nobody reads. Name one person who owns AI-related questions so employees have somewhere to go instead of guessing.
If employees are already using AI without your knowledge, don’t lead with punishment. A short amnesty period, where employees can disclose their current AI use without consequence, gets you an honest inventory of what’s actually happening across your team. That inventory is worth more than a policy nobody admits to violating. You can’t govern tools you don’t know are in use.
Revisit the policy every quarter. The tools your employees use today will look different in six months. A policy written once and never updated becomes exactly the kind of vague, ignored document that created this gap in the first place.
Writing an employee AI use policy protects your business from the inside. Protecting your employees when a policy isn’t enough is a different job, and it’s one defend-id was built for. Explore how employee identity protection benefits give your HR team a recovery partner the moment exposure happens, not months after the damage is done.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an employee AI use policy?
An employee AI use policy is a written document covering three things: which AI tools are approved for work use, what data can never be entered into an AI tool, and who reviews AI-generated work before it’s used. It replaces guesswork with clear rules that employees can actually follow.
Do small businesses actually need an AI policy?
Yes. A 2026 Founder Reports survey found that 59 percent of workers at companies with fewer than 10 employees say their employer has no clear AI policy. Generative AI use among small businesses is already widespread, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce putting adoption at 58 percent and rising.
What is shadow AI?
Shadow AI refers to AI tools employees use for work without their employer’s knowledge or approval. Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found shadow AI detections rose fourfold in a single year. It’s now the third most common non-malicious insider action found in breach investigations.
What data should never be entered into an AI tool?
Never enter Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank account details, health information, employee records, or customer payment data into a public or unapproved AI tool. The same goes for anything covered by a confidentiality agreement.
What happens if an employee accidentally exposes data through an AI tool?
Exposed data can be used for identity theft, fraudulent account openings, or tax fraud against the affected employee or customer. Employers should have a response plan in place and should consider identity protection benefits that give affected employees direct access to recovery support.
How often should an employee AI use policy be updated?
Review it every quarter. AI tools and employee usage patterns change quickly. A policy that isn’t updated becomes about as effective as having no policy at all.
Can AI still help my small business if I put a policy in place?
Yes. A clear employee AI use policy doesn’t restrict AI’s benefits, it directs them. Employees get a defined, approved way to use AI for real productivity gains without creating data exposure the business can’t take back.
Related Articles
by Brian Thompson | Jun 10, 2026 | Uncategorized
Last updated: June 2026
Identity crime isn’t a one-time event anymore. The Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2026 Trends in Identity Report, released June 9, 2026, found that 25.6% of victims are now dealing with two or more identity crimes at the same time, up from 23.5% the year before. And for the first time, hacked devices, not scams, are the top way criminals get in for adults ages 35 to 64. Unauthorized access to computers and phones jumped 78% year over year, from 15.3% to 27.2% of all reported compromises.
Below are seven rapid-fire answers to the questions we hear most, updated with what’s actually happening in 2026 and what to do if it happens to you.
Table of Contents
- How can I tell if my identity has been stolen?
- What is a fraud alert and how do I place one?
- How do I freeze my credit, and why bother?
- What steps protect my identity online and offline?
- What should I do if I’m a victim?
- How do scammers steal my information?
- Identity theft vs. financial fraud: what’s the difference?
1. How can I tell if my identity has been stolen?
Watch for:
- Accounts you don’t recognize showing up on your credit report
- Hard inquiries you didn’t authorize
- Bills or statements that suddenly stop arriving
- Charges, withdrawals, or account changes you can’t explain
- Password reset emails or two factor codes you didn’t request, a common sign someone has accessed your device or an account directly
The fastest way to catch these red flags is to check your credit report at least every four months (free at AnnualCreditReport.com), or use always on monitoring like defend-id, which watches your credit, accounts, and personal information continuously and alerts you the moment something changes.
2. What is a fraud alert and how do I place one?
A fraud alert tells lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before opening new credit in your name. Contact any one of the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, and they are required to notify the other two automatically. A standard fraud alert lasts one year and is renewable. Confirmed identity theft victims can place an extended alert that lasts seven years.
3. How do I freeze my credit, and why bother?
A credit freeze blocks anyone, including you, from opening new credit in your name until you lift it. It’s free, takes a few minutes per bureau, and is one of the strongest steps you can take to stop new account fraud. You’ll get a PIN or password to temporarily lift the freeze whenever you need to apply for credit yourself.
4. What steps protect my identity online and offline?
Online:
- Use strong, unique passwords for every account. A password manager makes this painless.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it’s offered.
- Keep your phone, computer, and apps updated. With device compromise now the leading cause of identity crime for adults 35 to 64, an unpatched device is one of the easiest ways in for criminals.
- Be skeptical of unexpected texts, emails, or calls asking you to log in, verify your identity, or share a code.
Offline:
- Shred documents containing personal or account information.
- Lock your mailbox or sign up for USPS Informed Delivery to spot mail theft early.
- Review your bank and credit card statements weekly, not just monthly.
5. What should I do if I’m a victim?
Move fast, in this order:
- File a report at IdentityTheft.gov to get a personalized recovery plan.
- Contact your banks and card issuers to lock down compromised accounts.
- Place a fraud alert or credit freeze.
- File a police report if you have specific suspects, a financial loss, or need it for disputes.
- Document everything: dates, names, reference numbers, and copies of statements.
Here’s the part most people don’t expect. The ITRC’s 2026 data found that 53% of victims with no financial loss were able to fully resolve their case, but only 9% of victims with any financial impact did. Among victims with three or more financial impacts, 0% reported a resolution. Once money is involved, most people get stuck.
That gap is exactly why defend-id includes fully managed recovery with certified restoration specialists. Instead of spending hours on hold with banks, credit bureaus, and government agencies, our team handles the calls, paperwork, and follow up until your case is resolved.
6. How do scammers steal my information?
| Method |
How it works |
| Device compromise |
Hacking into your phone or computer through malware, unpatched software, or unauthorized access. Now the top vector for adults 35 to 64, up 78% year over year, from 15.3% to 27.2% of compromises. |
| Scams (phishing, vishing, smishing) |
Tricking you into handing over information directly through fake emails, calls, or texts. Still the highest volume method overall, but down from 43.1% to 36.1% of compromises as device attacks rise. |
| Data breaches |
A company you do business with gets hacked, exposing your information along with everyone else’s. |
| Physical theft |
Stolen wallets, mail, or documents containing your personal information. |
| Social engineering |
Manipulating you, or someone at a company, into handing over access or information through deception rather than hacking. |
Account problem scams remain the highest volume scam type, and 74% of victims who fell for one shared high value personal information, the highest rate of any scam category. Job and employment scams are a close second.
7. Identity theft vs. financial fraud: what’s the difference?
Financial fraud is the misuse of an account you already have, such as someone making unauthorized charges on your existing credit card.
Identity theft is when someone uses your personal information to open new accounts, file fraudulent tax returns, or apply for jobs, loans, or government benefits in your name.
The distinction matters because the steps to fix each one are different, and identity theft typically takes much longer and more effort to fully resolve.
The Bottom Line
Identity crime in 2026 looks different than it did even a year ago. Criminals are layering attacks, hacked devices have overtaken scams as the top entry point for working age adults, and the data shows that once a financial loss happens, most victims never see their case fully resolved on their own.
That’s where defend-id comes in. Our monitoring watches for warning signs across your credit, accounts, dark web exposure, and personal information. If something does go wrong, our restoration team works your case until it’s resolved, not just until you stop calling.
Next Steps: Pick What Fits You Best
- Book a 15 minute demo to see how defend-id monitoring and recovery works.
- Grab our free quick action PDF for what to do in the first 24 hours after identity theft.
- Share this guide with someone who needs it.
Resources
by Brian Thompson | May 27, 2026 | Uncategorized
Last Updated: May 2026 | Reading time: ~10 minutes
In January 2026, a coordinated group of attackers worked through a list of companies and started calling employees. No malware. No exploit code. They called the help desk, said they were from IT, and asked the employee on the other end to confirm their login credentials so a ticket could be resolved. At hundreds of organizations, it worked. The attackers walked away with single sign-on credentials, enrolled their own devices into the victim’s multi-factor authentication system, and helped themselves to whatever cloud data they wanted.
That campaign, tracked by Mandiant and documented in detail by Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, is one of the clearest illustrations of where the threat is moving. Vishing attacks, voice-based phishing delivered by phone call, surged 442% between the first and second half of 2024, according to CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report. They now account for more than 60% of phishing-related incident response engagements, and 19% of all data breaches trace back to vishing or smishing as the initial point of entry, according to the 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report.
The phone was supposed to be safer than email. For small businesses and their employees, it no longer is.
What Is a Vishing Attack?
Vishing is short for voice phishing. It follows the same logic as email phishing: an attacker impersonates a trusted person or organization to extract sensitive information. The delivery method is a phone call rather than a message.
A vishing attacker might pose as your IT department, a bank fraud investigator, an IRS agent, a benefits administrator, or a vendor your company actually uses. The goal is to get the person on the other end to hand over credentials, confirm account details, approve a transaction, or take an action they otherwise would not. The calls are frequently scripted, often professionally delivered, and increasingly backed by research pulled from LinkedIn, company websites, and data exposed in previous breaches.
Vishing sits alongside smishing (SMS phishing) and social engineering as part of the same family of human-targeted attacks. Unlike technical exploits that require finding a software vulnerability, these attacks target the person, not the system. Training and awareness are the primary defenses, which also makes them the defense most organizations underinvest in.
Why Vishing Works: The Psychology Behind the Call
Phone calls carry a level of trust that email has largely lost. Most employees have been warned about suspicious links in email. Far fewer have been trained to question a caller who sounds authoritative, knows their name, and references a plausible situation.
Vishing works because attackers exploit predictable human reactions. Urgency is the most reliable tool. A call that opens with “your account shows unauthorized access and we need to verify your identity right now” pushes the target toward action before they have time to think. Fear and authority follow closely. A caller who sounds like they belong to IT, security, or a regulatory body triggers a compliance instinct in most employees, especially newer ones.
The Keepnet 2024 Voice Phishing Response Report found that 6.5% of employees handed over sensitive information during simulated vishing calls. That number climbs significantly in high-pressure sectors: manufacturing and engineering showed a susceptibility rate of 19.2%, and customer support teams clocked in at 11.5%. For small businesses where one person handles multiple roles, a single successful call can expose far more than one account.
Small business employees face 350% more social engineering attempts than employees at large enterprises, according to industry research. Larger companies have IT security teams, call verification procedures, and dedicated training programs. Most small businesses have none of these. Attackers know which end of that equation is easier to work.
How AI Has Transformed the Threat
Vishing was already effective before generative AI made it significantly worse. Current voice cloning tools can produce a convincing replica of someone’s voice from as little as three seconds of audio, according to research cited by McAfee. Earnings call recordings, podcast appearances, LinkedIn videos, and company overview content on YouTube all provide more than enough raw material.
Deepfake-enabled vishing attacks surged more than 1,600% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the final quarter of 2024. The FBI issued a formal public warning in December 2025 documenting cases where attackers used AI-generated voice messages to impersonate senior government officials, establishing trust before asking targets to hand over account access. The same technique that worked on government contacts works on employees who receive a call from someone who sounds exactly like their CEO or IT director.
AI has also scaled the operation. Voice bots can now handle thousands of simultaneous calls, conducting initial outreach and screening for targets before a human attacker takes over for the sensitive part of the conversation. What once required one attacker per call now allows a small group to run campaigns against hundreds of organizations at once, which is precisely what the January 2026 campaign demonstrated.
The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report logged more than 22,000 AI-related fraud complaints with losses exceeding $893 million. Researchers at Deloitte project that AI-enabled fraud losses in the U.S. could reach $40 billion annually by 2027. Neither figure accounts for unreported incidents, which the FBI estimates represent the large majority of what actually occurs.
How a Vishing Attack Actually Unfolds
Understanding the sequence of a vishing attack helps employees recognize it before they get to the part where they hand over credentials. The pattern is more predictable than it feels in the moment.
Reconnaissance comes first. Before the call, the attacker builds a target profile. Your employee’s name, role, and manager are on LinkedIn. Your company’s phone system, vendors, and software tools are often findable through job postings, review sites, or prior breach data. The attacker uses this to make the call feel internal rather than external.
The call opens with context, not a request. A caller who immediately asks for your password triggers suspicion. A caller who opens by referencing your ticketing system, your IT vendor by name, or a recent company event first sounds like they belong. The request comes after trust is established, often framed as a routine verification step.
Urgency closes the gap. Once the target is engaged, the attacker introduces a problem that requires immediate action: an account showing suspicious login attempts, a system update that must be completed before end of day, a fraud alert that will lock the account in minutes. The urgency is designed to short-circuit the instinct to pause and verify.
The follow-through varies by goal. Some attackers want credentials directly. Others direct the target to a convincing fake login page. In the 2026 ShinyHunters campaign, the goal was often to get employees to approve a new MFA device enrollment, which handed the attacker persistent access to the account even after the call ended. Recovery from that kind of compromise is significantly more complicated than a simple password reset.
Recognizing a Vishing Call: What Employees Need to Know
No technical tool stops a vishing call before it reaches an employee. The recognition has to happen during the conversation. These are the signals employees should learn to identify.
Pressure to act immediately. Legitimate IT teams, banks, and government agencies do not require instant action over the phone to prevent account suspension. If a caller insists that you must do something right now and cannot call back to verify, that urgency is the attack. Slow down, not down.
Requests for credentials, MFA codes, or remote access. No internal IT person needs your password to fix a problem on your account. Not one bank needs your full card number to investigate fraud. No government agency resolves a matter by requesting payment over the phone. Any caller asking for these things, regardless of how plausible the context sounds, is asking for something a legitimate caller never would.
Caller ID that matches a known organization. Caller ID is trivially spoofed. A call appearing to come from your bank’s main number, your company’s IT line, or a government agency phone number proves nothing about who is actually calling. The display is not authentication.
Escalating pressure after initial resistance. When an employee says “let me call you back on the number I have on file,” a legitimate caller agrees. An attacker objects, explains why that will not work, and escalates the urgency. That objection is itself a red flag.
Requests to install software or approve a notification. Being directed to install a remote access tool or approve an authentication push mid-call is a reliable indicator of a compromised interaction. Stop the call and report it to IT or a manager before taking any action.
What Small Businesses Should Put in Place
Technical controls help but are not sufficient on their own. The goal is to reduce the window where a successful vishing call can cause damage before anyone notices.
Establish a verbal verification procedure. Employees should know exactly what to say when they receive an unsolicited call requesting sensitive action: “I need to verify this request by calling you back on our internal directory.” Write the procedure down. Include it in onboarding.
Adopt phishing-resistant MFA for critical systems. Push-notification MFA is better than nothing but can be manipulated in a live call. Hardware security keys and passkeys are significantly harder to compromise through social engineering because they do not produce a code an employee can read aloud or approve remotely.
Limit what employees can do in a single call. High-risk actions such as resetting account credentials, approving new device enrollments, or authorizing wire transfers should require a second channel of verification. A call-back to a known number, a manager confirmation, or a written ticket submission each add a step an attacker cannot easily replicate.
Train employees on the specific scripts attackers use. General security awareness training is less effective than training that shows employees what an actual vishing call sounds like. KnowBe4 and other providers offer vishing simulation programs that test employees with realistic calls and follow up with targeted coaching for those who engage.
Create a no-consequence reporting culture. An employee who almost fell for a vishing call and then caught themselves needs to feel safe reporting it. If the culture punishes near-misses, the near-misses stop getting reported and the organization loses the early warning signals it needs to respond before a breach occurs.
If an Employee Does Fall for a Vishing Call
Speed matters more than perfect procedure in the first hour. Assume the account is compromised and act accordingly.
- Have the employee report it immediately, without shame or delay. The faster the response, the narrower the attacker’s window.
- Reset the affected account credentials and revoke any active sessions from the administrative side, not just by changing the password from the user side.
- Audit recent MFA device enrollments on the account. If a new device was added during or after the call, remove it immediately and investigate what was accessed during that enrollment window.
- Check connected SaaS applications. In the 2026 campaign pattern, once attackers had SSO access they moved laterally across every connected platform. The breach is rarely limited to the one account the employee handed over.
- Notify affected employees whose personal data may have been accessed. If employee records, HR data, or benefits information was in scope, those individuals may face downstream identity theft risk and should be informed promptly.
- File an IC3 complaint with the FBI. Vishing incidents are underreported, which limits law enforcement’s ability to track and disrupt the groups running these campaigns.
The recovery burden falls on the individual employee as much as it falls on the company. A vishing call that results in credential theft can be the starting point for identity fraud that follows that employee for years: fraudulent accounts opened in their name, tax fraud filed under their Social Security number, or unauthorized benefit claims that create complications across multiple agencies. That recovery process is slow, stressful, and time-consuming without help.
Identity theft protection services with live recovery advocates can handle much of that process on behalf of the affected employee, including contacting credit bureaus, disputing fraudulent accounts, working with government agencies, and monitoring for new fraud as it surfaces. Offering that coverage as an employee benefit means your team has somewhere to turn the moment a call goes wrong, rather than spending weeks figuring it out alone.
Frequently Asked Questions About Vishing Attacks
What is the difference between vishing, phishing, and smishing?
Phishing is the broad category of attacks that use deception to steal information or credentials. Phishing delivered by email is simply called phishing. Smishing is phishing delivered by text message. Vishing is phishing delivered by voice call. All three use the same psychological mechanics but reach the target through a different channel.
Can caller ID be trusted to verify who is calling?
No. Caller ID spoofing is cheap, widely available, and requires no technical expertise. Attackers routinely display the phone numbers of banks, government agencies, or internal company lines to make their calls appear legitimate. A phone number on your screen is not evidence that the caller is who they claim to be.
Are small businesses really targeted by vishing attackers?
Yes, and disproportionately so. Smaller organizations typically lack the call verification procedures, dedicated security staff, and employee training programs that make vishing harder to execute against larger enterprises. Research shows small business employees face significantly higher rates of social engineering attempts per person than their counterparts at large companies. The lower defenses make the effort-to-reward ratio attractive for attackers running volume campaigns.
What should an employee do when they receive a suspicious call?
Tell the caller you need to verify the request and that you will call back on a number from your company’s internal directory or the organization’s official website. Do not use a number the caller provides. If the caller objects or escalates pressure, end the call and report it to IT or a manager immediately. The willingness to wait for a call-back is one of the clearest separators between a legitimate caller and an attacker.
How does AI voice cloning make vishing more dangerous?
AI voice cloning tools can replicate a person’s voice convincingly from a small sample of recorded audio. That means attackers can impersonate a CEO, a manager, an IT director, or anyone else whose voice appears in a recording online. Earnings calls, podcast appearances, company videos, and even voicemail greetings can all serve as source material. The result is a call that sounds exactly like a trusted person, which significantly raises the likelihood that an employee will comply with the request.
Does MFA protect against vishing attacks?
Standard push-notification MFA provides some protection but can be defeated in a live call. An attacker who has already obtained a username and password can trigger an MFA push and then ask the employee to approve the notification during the call. Phishing-resistant MFA methods, specifically hardware security keys and passkeys, are substantially harder to compromise through a phone call because they do not produce an approvable code the employee can act on mid-conversation.
What information do attackers typically try to steal through vishing attacks?
The targets vary by campaign. Corporate vishing attacks most often go after login credentials, MFA codes, or approval of remote access. Consumer-targeted calls tend to focus on Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card details, or Medicare and benefits information. Employment-related vishing, where attackers obtain enough information to file fraudulent tax returns or claim benefits under a victim’s name, is one of the fastest-growing subcategories and the one most directly connected to long-term identity theft.
The CTA: Give Employees Somewhere to Turn
Vishing attacks succeed by exploiting individuals, not systems. The employee who approves an unauthorized MFA device or reads a one-time code to the wrong person is not the weak link you fix with a firewall. They are the person your organization needs to support before and after an attack lands.
Defend-ID provides identity theft protection as an employee benefit. U.S.-based Recovery Advocates handle the restoration process, start to finish, when an employee’s identity is compromised. When the next vishing call succeeds, your team has somewhere to call. Learn more at defend-id.com.
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by Brian Thompson | Apr 29, 2026 | Uncategorized
Last Updated: April 2026 | Reading time: ~10 minutes
AI job scams are now the fastest-growing category of fraud aimed at job seekers. Reports to the Federal Trade Commission topped 105,000 in 2024, roughly three times the 2020 total, and reported losses jumped from $90 million to over $513 million in the same period. In April 2026, the FTC reported that scam losses originating on social media hit $2.1 billion in 2025, eight times what they were in 2020, and that one in three job or business opportunity scams reporting financial loss started on social media.
Graduation season is the worst possible moment for that trend to be peaking. Millions of new graduates are hitting the job market, and AI-powered scammers are waiting with deepfake recruiters, fake offer letters, and synthetic company profiles that look more legitimate than the real thing. This guide covers exactly what AI job scams look like in 2026, the red flags that still give them away, and what job seekers, parents, and employers should be doing to stay ahead.
Why AI Job Scams Exploded in 2026
The same generative AI tools that help legitimate companies write better job descriptions and screen resumes have given fraudsters a massive upgrade. The old job scam was easy to spot: typos, broken English, a vague company name, and a request to wire money. The 2026 version is polished, personal, and persuasive.
Three forces are driving the surge:
- Cheap, accessible deepfake tools. Real-time face-swap filters and voice cloning that used to require technical skill now run on consumer apps. Industry data from staffing firm Lloyd Staffing reports that deepfake fraud attempts in hiring jumped roughly 1,300% from 2023 to 2024.
- Remote-first hiring. A video interview from a candidate’s apartment is now standard, which gives scammers a controlled environment to run deepfakes. It also gives fake “employers” cover for never meeting their hires in person.
- Stolen identity data on tap. Years of breaches have made names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers cheap and abundant on dark web markets. AI fills in the rest, generating LinkedIn profiles, portfolio sites, and resumes that look like real careers.
The result is a marketplace where fraud is effectively on demand. Both sides of the hiring conversation are at risk: candidates are being targeted by fake recruiters, and employers are increasingly interviewing candidates who do not actually exist.
The Most Common AI Job Scams in 2026
Fake Recruiters on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Text
The most common version starts with an unsolicited message. A “recruiter” reaches out on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram DM, or plain SMS text. The role sounds great, remote, flexible, well above market pay, light on qualifications. The recruiter’s profile looks credible, often impersonating a real person at a real company. AI-generated headshots and recycled job descriptions make the impersonation hard to catch at a glance.
The goal is rarely to actually hire anyone. Instead, scammers harvest enough personal data, including Social Security numbers, driver’s license images, bank accounts, copies of voided checks, to commit identity theft, file fraudulent tax returns, or open accounts in the victim’s name. As a result, the FTC has flagged this pattern repeatedly: legitimate employers do not ask for sensitive personal information before an interview, and they do not conduct hiring entirely through WhatsApp or Telegram.
Deepfake Interviews and Fake Hiring Managers
In April 2025, voice security firm Pindrop posted a senior engineering role and ended up interviewing a candidate it later named “Ivan X.” His resume was strong. The video interview was confident. His facial expressions were also slightly out of sync with his voice, and his IP address pointed thousands of miles from the location he claimed. Pindrop’s investigation found a deepfake operation, possibly tied to a state-sponsored group.
That same playbook is now showing up on the candidate side. Scammers use real-time face-swap filters to impersonate executives at well-known companies during Zoom or Teams calls, walking applicants through fake interviews and fake offer letters. Amazon’s chief security officer disclosed in late 2025 that the company had blocked more than 1,800 suspected North Korean state-affiliated applicants since April 2024, with attempts growing roughly 27% quarter over quarter. The same techniques are now in the hands of ordinary fraud rings.
Fake Offer Letters and “Onboarding” Identity Theft
This is where the scam pivots from inconvenience to financial damage. After a few rounds of polished communication, the candidate receives a formal-looking offer letter, often on convincing letterhead. Onboarding “paperwork” follows: I-9 verification, direct deposit setup, “equipment provisioning,” and tax forms.
The scam variations are predictable:
- Fake W-9 or W-4 forms collect a Social Security number that gets resold or used to file fraudulent tax returns.
- “Direct deposit setup” requests bank login credentials, voided checks, or routing and account numbers.
- An “equipment stipend” check arrives, the new hire is asked to deposit it and forward funds to a “vendor.” The check bounces a week later, and the victim is on the hook.
- An “IT setup” link installs a remote-access Trojan that hands the scammer control of the victim’s computer, banking sessions, and password manager.
By the time the victim realizes the company never existed, their identity is already in motion across credit applications, tax returns, and account openings. Recovery can take months, which is exactly why this scam is so attractive to the people running it.
Task Scams and “Pay to Get Paid” Traps
The FTC reports that task scams, gamified “jobs” where victims complete repetitive online tasks like rating products or liking videos, accounted for nearly 40% of job scam reports in the first half of 2024, with cryptocurrency losses to job scams hitting $41 million in just six months. The pattern is consistent: easy work, small payouts that build up, then a sudden requirement to deposit money to “unlock” the larger commission. The deposit goes to the scammer, the platform disappears, and the victim is out of the money, plus any banking or crypto wallet details they shared.
Red Flags Every Job Seeker Should Recognize in 2026
Most AI job scams still fail the same basic tests they did five years ago. The polish has changed; the tells have not. Watch for these warning signs:
- Unsolicited contact on the wrong channel. Real recruiters use LinkedIn InMail, official email, or applicant tracking systems. They do not pitch six-figure remote roles over WhatsApp or random text messages.
- The hiring process never includes a phone call or video that matches what you’d expect. An entire hiring process conducted by chat is a red flag. So is a video interview where the interviewer’s lighting, lip sync, or facial movements seem slightly off.
- Sensitive personal information requested before a real offer. Social Security number, copies of your driver’s license, or bank account details collected during early screening are a stop sign.
- Salary ranges far above market with vague responsibilities. A “data entry” role paying $80,000 remote with no experience required is bait.
- Pay-to-work mechanics. Any request to pay for training, certification, equipment, or “verification” is a scam. Real employers pay you, not the other way around.
- Pressure to act fast. “We need an answer today” or “the role closes at 5 p.m.” is a classic urgency lever designed to bypass the part of your brain that asks questions.
- Email domains and URLs that don’t quite match. A recruiter from “@google-careers.com” or “@microsoft-hr.net” is not a recruiter from Google or Microsoft. Always verify the domain.
- Onboarding checks that arrive before you’ve signed anything legitimate. Any check that requires you to forward funds to a third party is fraud. Full stop.
If two or more of these show up in the same conversation, walk away. The cost of missing a real opportunity is small. The cost of handing over your Social Security number is years.
How to Protect Yourself, Your Family, and New Graduates
The best defense is to layer verify the source, lock down the data, and have a recovery plan if something gets through.
- Verify every posting at the source. Ignore the link in the recruiter’s message. Go directly to the company’s careers page. If the role isn’t listed there, it isn’t real.
- Reverse-research the recruiter. Search the recruiter’s name plus the company on LinkedIn. Check for real posts, sensible connections, and a verifiable work history.
- Never share sensitive data before a verified offer. SSN, date of birth, and bank details belong in real onboarding through a company portal, not in a chat thread or emailed PDF.
- Use a separate email for job applications. A dedicated address keeps your main inbox clean and makes scam messages stand out.
- Freeze your credit before you start a search. A credit freeze with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion is free, takes minutes, and blocks new accounts even if your data is stolen. Lift it when you need legitimate credit pulled.
- Have a recovery plan. An identity protection service with monitoring and a recovery advocate means that if something slips through, a professional handles the dispute, restoration, and law enforcement steps for you.
For parents of college students and new graduates, this is the moment to have the conversation. A first-time job seeker is a high-value target with clean credit, a fresh Social Security number, and not yet trained to spot the modern version of these scams. Our guide on identity theft protection for college students covers the parents’ angle.
What HR and SMB Hiring Teams Should Do Differently
The other half of this story is what fraudsters are doing to employers. Fake candidates are no longer a fringe issue. Industry surveys cited by talent platforms in 2026 found that 59% of hiring managers suspect candidates of using AI to misrepresent themselves, and one in three said they had discovered a candidate using a fake identity or proxy during an interview. Background screening firm Checkr reported that 23% of companies have already encountered identity fraud among new hires.
For small and midsize employers, the practical steps are straightforward:
- Move identity verification earlier. Verify identity at application or pre-screen, not after a hiring decision. Cross-check LinkedIn against email domains and known employers.
- Require at least one live interaction that’s hard to fake. Asking the candidate to turn their head, hold up an ID, or wave a hand in front of their face exposes most current real-time deepfake filters. Google and McKinsey reintroduced mandatory in-person interviews for sensitive roles in 2025 specifically to counter this.
- Confirm references through verified channels. Call references at numbers you find independently, not numbers the candidate provides.
- Slow down remote-only roles with privileged access. Engineering, finance, and IT roles with access to systems or money are the highest-value targets.
- Treat “URGENT, fully remote, start Monday” the way job seekers should. Pressure tactics work in both directions.
- Offer identity protection as a benefit. Employees, especially recent grads and parents of college-age children, are walking through a job market where the next phishing message could cost them years.
If your organization has not yet thought through how it would respond to a synthetic-identity hire who exfiltrated data before disappearing, our small business post-breach playbook covers the first 72 hours in detail.
The Bottom Line
AI job scams are not a fringe risk anymore. They are a multi-hundred-million-dollar fraud category targeting the most vulnerable group in the labor market, job seekers, especially new graduates, at the exact moment they’re most willing to overlook red flags to land an offer. The defenses are still familiar: verify the source, protect your data, and have a recovery plan in place before you need one.
For more on the broader category, see our coverage of AI-powered phishing attacks and deepfake scams.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI Job Scams
How can I tell if a recruiter is real?
Verify three things independently. Search the company’s careers page for the role and apply through that path, not the recruiter’s link. Look up the recruiter on LinkedIn and check for a real history of posts, connections, and work. Confirm the email domain matches the company exactly. “@company.com” is real; “@company-careers.net” almost never is.
What information should I never share during a job application?
Before a verified offer letter signed through a real company portal, never share your full Social Security number, driver’s license image, bank or routing numbers, voided checks, or credit card photos. Real employers collect this through secure HR systems after you’ve accepted an offer.
Are AI deepfake job interviews really happening to ordinary candidates?
Yes, in both directions. Scammers run real-time face-swap filters to impersonate executives at well-known companies during fake interviews of real candidates, and separately, fake candidates use deepfake tools to apply for legitimate jobs. Industry estimates put the rise in deepfake hiring fraud attempts at roughly 1,300% from 2023 to 2024.
What should I do if I gave personal information to a fake recruiter?
Move quickly. Place a fraud alert and credit freeze with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Report the incident at IdentityTheft.gov to generate a recovery plan. File complaints with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, if money was lost, with the FBI at IC3.gov. Notify your bank and any account where you reused credentials. If you have identity protection, call your recovery advocate.
Are new graduates really at higher risk than experienced job seekers?
Yes. New graduates have clean credit reports, unused Social Security numbers, and apply to many roles in a short window, which gives a bad actor more chances to slip through. They are also less likely to have seen the modern version of these scams before.
Can identity protection actually help with a job scam?
It doesn’t stop the scam from being attempted, but it changes what happens after. Continuous monitoring catches new accounts and credit inquiries within days instead of months. A recovery advocate handles the dispute calls, paperwork, and law enforcement reports on the victim’s behalf.
Protect Your Identity Before the Next Offer Lands
Whether you’re job hunting yourself, advising a recent graduate, or running an HR team trying to keep new hires safe, the same principle applies: identity protection works best when it’s already in place before the scam attempt. Defend-ID’s identity protection plans include continuous monitoring and a U.S.-based recovery advocate who handles the cleanup if anything slips through. Learn more about Defend-ID identity protection or talk to your benefits team about adding it to your employee package.
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