Warning to California Agents!!

[Crabcake Johnny]

Yet again, you don't have to stop offering advances - you simply have to actively verify ID. And if your goal is to verify ID then someone who stole it will never pass the test.

They'll be able to rattle off that person's ssn and birthday. Why not a silly test like I use to do when I was bartender? People would give me suspicious ID and I had one question:

"What's your sign?"

See, they memorized the date of birth but can't figure out what zodiac sign it is. I gave them about 2 seconds to answer before I called the bouncer.

You can get as clever as you want to get, and it's free; "Tom Smith, we're doing an ID check and I see you have a FaceBook account. Can you please post the following status update?"

No one who stole someone's ID went far enough to actually pull up their entire credit report. So they're burned on the first question; "How long have you lived at your current address."

Now, if FMO's don't want to verify identity especially after they know about scams like this then I don't feel sorry for them if they lose $500,000. It's simply sloppy.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Our system:

Advances start at 65% (8 months) and will be lowered if persistency falls below ave.

We do back ground checks, vector checks, and credit score checks.

New agents almost always need advances to buy 20+leads per week. If everything doesn't check out with the potential new agent we will pass on them. Kinda like playing poker.....know when to hold em and know when to fold em.

I pretty much only train full-time agents who can work in my office (has 10 cubicles) doing Final Expense tele-sales....where I can keep an eye on things.

On another post someone asked me why, if an agent was considering my opportunity, would I request they drive to meet me (if they lived less than 2 hours away) for an interview.

Or, if they lived further than 2 hours away, I would request a copy of their license and proof of production.

The agent doing the questioning mentioned a few other recruitewrs on this forum who wouldn't require the info I do. And some of those recruiters have been burned by that group of rogue agents in Cali........Mark and Todd and probably a few more.

The way I handle recruiting, you won't see me getting burned as has been mentioned by Mark from that group of Cali. agents.

You can make $$ and you can lose $$ recruiting agents. You have to use common sense and be smart about it.

Plus, when you can personally write biz yourself you don't have to just contract any old agent who comes along.

 

[DS4]

I want to warn Life agents in Calfornia to go to the insurance dept website and make sure that the address they have is your and has not been changed.

I went to Ca Dept of Ins web site.
You can change an agent address online if you know the following info,

Agent Lic number
Agent date of birth
Last 4 of SSN

Maybe all states don't require this?

 

[Cornelius]

From the way it sounds this can happen in basically any state.. The DOI and the carriers will do what they need to do the issue is the individual agents. They will have to clean up the mess on their end.

 

[Todd King]

Mark...they cannot pass a credit check with ID verification - I'm sorry but they can't:

Mark to agent: "Ok, I see on your credit report you owned a car in 2002. What model was that?"

Scammer: "Ummm, ummmmm....click"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


I get the same calls.

It all stops when FMO's stop trying to figure out how many agents to hire and instead switch to "WHO" they should hire.

John, if I can get the credit report to see the info to ask that question, then so can the crooked agent.

 

[Mark]

The purpose of this thread is to warn Calf Agents about what a group of crooks are doing by stealing good agents info (somehow) and how to watch out for it.

They are picking agents with good credit, no vectors and have been in the business for a while. (I'm not sure how they got the agents important info) but bottom line is that you need to check on the Calf Dept of INS website and make sure they have your credit address. If it has been changed to an unknown location, then that is a big red flag and you need to look into this.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

John, if I can get the credit report to see the info to ask that question, then so can the crooked agent.

I'd be willing to bet anything they don't think that far. They're not pulling credit reports of the people they steal IDs from.

Even if they do:

"I'm looking at your date of birth - what's your sign?"

Game - set - match.

Or per my previous example: "I see you have FaceBook page." Scammer "ummmm, yes, that's mine." "Ok, can you please post this status update for me."

Game - set - match.

I can "out-clever" anyone who steals someone's identity IF it's my goal to verify them. If you can't and are getting burned out of thousands of dollars maybe running a large agency isn't your gig.

 

[Todd King]

I'd be willing to bet anything they don't think that far. They're not pulling credit reports of the people they steal IDs from.

Even if they do:

"I'm looking at your date of birth - what's your sign?"

Game - set - match.

Or per my previous example: "I see you have FaceBook page." Scammer "ummmm, yes, that's mine." "Ok, can you please post this status update for me."

Game - set - match.

I can "out-clever" anyone who steals someone's identity IF it's my goal to verify them. If you can't and are getting burned out of thousands of dollars maybe running a large agency isn't your gig.

Wow John, I'm not sure who's pissed in your wheaties today, but I'll take it under advisment since you've got so much experience in running an IMO.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Sorry for the perceived 'tude. The theme of this tread is "FMOs are being scammed due to identity theft" with a "whoa is me - not much we can do about is undercurrent."

There's everything you can do about it - FMOs simply have to given enough of a ****. And Wheaties are bland - I'm a Crispix guy.