Social Engineering Incident Defrauds One of Our Valued Dealer-Partners
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We recently became aware of a Social Engineering incident, where a bad actor sent an email to a dealer and spoofed the email addresses of one of our agent-partners and certain people within our company. In this particular case, this individual actually purchased an email domain very similar to iA American's (firstname.lastname@iAAAwg.com vs. firstname.lastname@iAAwg.com), and did the same with the agent’s email.
Unfortunately, the dealer believed that the phishing email was legitimate, which resulted in a fraudulent transaction.
Social Engineering is on the rise, because it’s an easy and effective way to get around a company’s defenses. Why? Because it focuses on the weakest link in the chain: all of us. According to Kaspersky, “Social Engineering is a manipulation technique that exploits human error to gain private information, access, or valuables. In cybercrime, these “human hacking” scams tend to lure unsuspecting users into exposing data, spreading malware infections, or giving access to restricted systems.”
In other words, the easiest way for the bad guys to get through a businesses' defenses is via a human being who has their guard down. In this case, they succeeded with an official-looking email that had subtle email address changes. However, they could have just as easily used text messages and phone calls.
REGARDING EMAILS: iA American has email rules in place that automatically encrypt certain information when it's sent to external parties, including ABA Routing Numbers, US / UK Passport Numbers, US Bank Account Numbers, US Individual Tax Identification numbers, US Social Security Numbers, and Credit Card Numbers.
REGARDING PHONE CALLS: We strongly encourage you and your staff to always observe best practices and verify banking information by speaking directly over the phone with the person making the request, before setting up, changing, or modifying the details of any electronic commerce, including wire transfers, ACH payments, and credit card payments. If you receive a phone call asking for this information, you should immediately call your counterpart back at the number you know to be correct.
REGARDING TEXT MESSAGES: No iA American employee would ever request a money transfer or any of the above information via a text message.
These are the procedures that iA American's staff has been trained to follow. Please let us know if we can offer any suggestions on how you can also strengthen the security of similar transactions on your end. Thank you for doing your part to keep your dealers, your agency, and your partners at iA American protected!
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Easier Speed to Market! No Regulatory or Lender Approval! No State Tax Returns! It’s Super CFC!
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Please join us online this Friday, September 30th
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Yes, it’s Super CFC! A Controlled Foreign Corporation with powerful advantages far beyond those of a Dealer-Owned Warranty Company! To learn all about our Super CFC and how it can benefit you and your dealer-clients, please join Glenn, Matt, and Kirk Borchardt for our next Agent Spotlight!
In addition to being iA American’s Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel, Kirk is a legendary expert on the regulatory, tax, and corporate structural aspects of the service contract and ancillary products industries. With his unique ability to untangle the complexity of reinsurance and explain it in terms anyone can understand, we can assure you that this month’s Agent Spotlight will be one you won’t want to miss!
One meeting time only: Friday, September 30th at 11:30 a.m. CT / 12:30 p.m. ET.
Thank you in advance for your participation. Please contact Glenn or Matt and let them know if you have any questions or need assistance joining in.
Glenn Nielsen: [email protected]. 512.799.8697
Matt Romanowski: [email protected]. 443.880.0918
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iA American Claims: Making a Difference
Q&A with Brad Crowson, VP of VSC Claims
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By Melinda O'Connell, Senior Content Editor
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This month, we sat down with Vice President of VSC Claims, Brad Crowson, to learn how iA American’s claims experience compares to what many of our competitors offer.
According to Brad, it all comes down to having some of the best and most experienced claims adjudicators in the business, our unique state-of-the-art technology, and our dedication to providing fast, fair, and friendly service to every agent, every dealer, and every contract holder, every time.
Let’s start with the most important question: Regarding claims, what’s different about working with iA American?
Client satisfaction is our #1 goal—our “North Star,” as Kristen Gruber likes to say. So all three claims teams—ancillary, VSC, and GAP—that’s what we’re all striving for. Our teams are staffed with experienced claims and customer service personnel, and we have a goal of providing first-contact resolution when possible.
What does iA American do that other administrators don’t? How does our process benefit the dealers more than that of our competitors?
Well, because of the way our products and our programs are structured, we’re partners. We value the relationships we have with our dealer partners, and we want our products to add an additional opportunity to maintain customer loyalty. We’re not just a third-party administrator that’s only looking at the bottom line.
Some administrators don’t have a backend profit agreement or some sort of profit-sharing with their dealer partners, so they’re holding things really close to the vest as far as claims are concerned. They’re more likely to negotiate pricing down as low as possible and deny things that are kind of in a gray area, whereas we’re the opposite. We set up our programs so that the dealers and the agencies and the agents and everybody involved has an easier time of submitting business, filing claims, getting claims paid, and getting them paid for the amount they should paid, and for the things that should be covered.
There are a lot of administrators out there that have a reputation of being hard to deal with because every claim is a negotiation. Well, it’s not for us. For us, it’s, “Hey, is this covered by the product the customer purchased?” That’s what we’re trying to determine, and most of the time, it is. And we approve it, and we pay what the dealer or the repair facility should be paid for that job – the full retail price, if you will.
What else do our partners need to know about us, about our claims process?
Our systems and tools that we use are state-of-the-art, ensuring fast, accurate, and fair results. We constantly work to improve service quality and response times.
What makes our systems and tools better than others’? Could you expand on that a little?
Of course. We have a system, Toro, which is our “homegrown,” proprietary admin system that we have full control over. We can modify it, we can improve it. It’s been constantly under development over the past 20 years, and that’s something our competitors don’t have. They’re typically using off-the-shelf software developed by another company. These are off-the-shelf programs that have been modified by the company that provides the software, whereas Toro is our own in-house, custom-built program. It’s built to do what we do. And we have our own development team that’s constantly working on it to add new products, new features, and improve how we process business, how we process claims. I think that’s really important.
And how does all of this impact our agent partners?
With fewer issues and escalations of issues regarding claims and associated events, our service and service levels delivered to their dealer clients ensure they are satisfied and continue to produce products.
Thank you, Brad, for taking the time to discuss our claims process and shed some light on what sets iA American apart in the industry!
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Upcoming iA American Training Institute (iAATI)
Training Opportunities
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iA American Training Institute has the F&I training and processes to ensure the best customer experience, increase in profitability, and compliance best practices for your dealerships.
T.U.S.K. F&I School
Course description: T.U.S.K. F&I School introduces a progressive and innovative curriculum that is designed for business managers at every level. It teaches our customer-centric 15 Minute F&I Turn process, intended for today’s more informed, better educated customers.
Topics covered include:
- F&I process
- Primary functions of the business manager
- Working with today’s internet-educated customer
- Primary emotions, commitment, and ownership
- Legal compliance
- Effective menu presentation using Y.E.S. method
- RISC disclosure, A.B.C. objection technique, and much more
October iAATI Training in Oklahoma City
When: Tuesday, October 11 through Friday, October 14
To Register: Please click here
November iAATI Training in Las Vegas
When: Monday, November 7 through Thursday, November 10
To Register: Please click here
November iAATI Training in Austin
When: Tuesday, November 8 through Friday, November 11
To Register: Please click here
November iAATI Training in Farmington Hills, MI
When: Tuesday, November 8 through Friday, November 11
To Register: Please click here
For more information about iAATI training opportunities, please call or email your sales rep, or contact:
Tony Dupaquier | North American Training Director
[email protected] | 512.542.1669
Mike Holliman | National Director of Training
[email protected] | 918.361.4524
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iA American Claims Performance for August 2022
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© 2022 iA American Warranty Group Inc. The iA American Warranty Group name and logo are registered trademarks of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc.
All rights reserved.
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