Here’s How Alltru Credit Union Is Helping Its Members Fight Identity Theft
A patter forming through many of the articles in this series revolves around the ways banks and credit unions can re-establish their branches as core hubs for the communities they serve and come up with innovative strategies to offer engagement opportunities beyond their core function as financial institutions.
We discussed Columbia Bank’s new branch which serves as a muti-function community center alongside regular services, then we brought you the way Affinity Federal Credit Union was using its physical locations to host tech drives and provide local schools with donated digital devices.
Today it’s the turn of St. Louis based, Alltru Credit Union – formally known as 1st Financial Credit Union – and the way in which it’s helping its members become savvier to, and providing strategies to combat, the dangers of identity theft.
Identity Theft
Thanks to our increasingly online world, the risk of having your identity stolen and used for fraudulent activity has never been higher. In days gone by, there would have been the risk of a criminal being recognized because certain stages of the swindle would have needed to be carried out in person, but no longer.
According to McAfee, an estimated 15 million Americans had their identity stolen in 2021, and the FTC received more than 1.4 million reports of identity theft. Criminals have used identity theft to steal more than $750 million from taxpayers through COVID-19 stimulus frauds since January 2020, and identity thieves stole around $52 billion from Americans in 2021.
You may assume that older people are more likely to suffer identity theft, but research suggests differently. GenX and Millennials reported far more identity theft incidents than Baby Boomers and GenZ according to the Federal Trade Commission. This could be because these generations are more likely to carry out business online than their older relatives but could also merely be a factor of them being more likely to spot and report unusual activity.
What is not up for discussion is the fact that almost every type of identity theft is on the rise and people need to be educated on its risks and be provided with strategies to protect themselves from falling victim to these unscrupulous criminals.
And this is exactly what Alltru Credit Union has been seeking to achieve with its innovative Shred Day initiative in partnership with St. Louis' safe, secure paper document, and digital media shredding brand, The Shred Truck.
Shred Day
Alltru Credit Union’s first free Shred Day events were held in April and May of 2022 and invited the surrounding community into its branches to learn the importance of properly destroying documents which contain personal information and other strategies for avoiding identity thieves.
The Shred Truck was also brought in to add a bit of theatre to the day by allowing guests to shred documents on site during the event.
"The Shred Truck has been contracted to shred the documents on onsite," said Alltru ahead of the event. "The Shred Truck is a certified document shredding company that provides mobile on-site document shredding services throughout the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Alltru Credit Union is dedicated to the financial well-being of their membership including educating the community about the importance of identity theft protection."
During the event, hundreds of documents were destroyed, and people went away with a better idea of the importance of destroying documents properly and not just throwing them in the trash.
"Identity theft has become a very big problem for companies and residents alike," said The Shred Truck in a blog post. "There are more identity theft criminals than ever. These thieves latch onto any type of personal or confidential information they can find and use it for their own fraudulent purposes. It’s important for everyone to protect their personal information because this material is what thieves primarily use to obtain credit card numbers, bank account information, and other personal and financial information."
Final Thoughts
Identity theft is a growing concern and people need to be educated about its dangers and how to avoid them. In hosting this innovative Shred Day, Alltru Credit Union has come up with a unique way to simultaneously deliver these messages to the people of St Louis and remind them that financial institutions have a deeper role to play within communities than simple transactions.
We hope this article series has provided you with some ideas on how branches can return to being core components in the communities they serve and more than just somewhere to pay in checks.
You can hear Alltru Credit Union’s VP for Member Experience, Lone Callahan, speak at Future Branches Austin 2022, taking place in December at the JW Marriott Austin, TX.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.