EVA VELASQUEZ: There are a couple things that identity crime victims face that are really unique. A crime has been committed in their name, and they now have to prove that they are not that person.
It's really about empowering people and making sure that they don't feel that sense of helplessness, to come in and really be the voice of the victim, provide some background and context about how traumatic this type of crime is.
The Identity Theft Resource Center has helped hundreds of thousands of people. Our mission is to provide best-in-class, no-cost services to victims of identity and cybercrimes.
How can we give you the most meaningful service that's really going to be applicable to you?
We are building technology and leveraging technology to help as many people as we can.
WOMAN: Yeah, that's fine.
EVA VELASQUEZ: Our call center is taking 22,000 calls per year. We are heavily engaged in social media, with millions of people seeing the information and the resources that we're putting out there. And then our web presence, we get anywhere from half a million to close to 800,000 visitors every year.
I'm particularly proud of our app. We're in your phone when you need us. You can actually get immediate assistance and direction from us.
And the other great project that we're just embarking on now is ViViAN, our Virtual Victim Assistance Network.
WOMAN: The AI is pulling the information from the website.
EVA VELASQUEZ: We hope to use AI and other technology to provide more services to victims when a live advisor is not available.
The FAST program--Fostering a Secure Tomorrow--is a program that we've engaged with one of our sponsors on in helping foster youth to recover from an identity theft issue.
They are so vulnerable because their credentials are being passed around from foster home to foster home through various entities--their birth certificates, their social security numbers. We have to be a resource for them, and we have to have special programs that really meet their needs and help them.
I hope that we continue to create safe technology and leverage technology to help victims of crime. It's being used in every other industry with great success, and I hope we continue to do it in victim services.
