With regard to amenities, have you considered offering your residents access to credit building and protection from identity theft? These services can provide more value to your renters than you might have guessed. Identity theft and fraud are estimated to impact five out of 10 Americans. For the majority of residents, rent is their largest monthly expense, and they work hard to meet it. Why not give them credit for that? Including on-time rent payments for inclusion in credit reporting can have significant credit score benefits over time. What kind of protection is available? When it comes to preventing identity theft, it’s important to be vigilant. Should your information be compromised, you must act quickly to either stop fraud in its tracks — or minimize the damage if an incident has already occurred. Credit monitoring with real-time alerts via text or email, and public records surveillance to make sure your identity isn’t being used by a thief, are important services to look for to protect your sensitive personal and financial information. Other services to consider include change of address monitoring to ensure your mail isn’t being fraudulently redirected, and lost wallet protection to get help with canceling credit cards and replacing the contents of a stolen or misplaced wallet. How do I offer fraud protection to my residents? Resident-Link* from Fraud Protection Network is an industry leader in providing residents with credit building and monitoring along with identity theft protection in a single product. The solution includes on-time rent payment reporting, identity and ID verification alerts, social security number and public records monitoring as well as credit monitoring services. Ready to offer a great new amenity at your community? Property managers can offer residents a path to building better credit and peace of mind...

“We’ve found fraud on your taxes. This is the IRS. If you don’t pay, you’ll be arrested by the cops.” Sound familiar? If you have a cellphone, chances are you’ve had a call from a suspected scammer. The one where a robotic voice warns you of your expired insurance, an error on your taxes or a bank loan gone bad. Situations that demand you act immediately – if they weren’t false pretenses designed to fleece you out of your money. Screening and ignoring unknown callers are the best way to avoid fraudulent scams, and some service providers are beginning to offer automated screening alerts. But not everyone has the luxury of skipping calls they don’t recognize, and some groups, particularly the elderly, may not even be aware of the risk. And when you factor in a higher likelihood of cognitive impairments, it’s no surprise that older adults are a prime target for fraudsters. This has led to a growing criminal industry of phone scammers who prey entirely on the elderly. Studies suggest that 1 in 18 older adults face fraud each year, and according to Fraud.org, “more than one in every five complaints received in 2018 came from someone over the age of 65.” That’s a nearly 20 percent increase over the year before, which suggests that scammers are only becoming more aggressive in their targeting. So what can you do? The best defense is awareness. By learning the most common phone scams, you can stay safe and ensure those you care for are too. Share these scenarios with your older loved ones so they know what to do if the “IRS” comes calling. According to the Special Committee on Aging, here are the top phone scams affecting the elderly: IRS impersonators This scheme...