Looking into buying a hitch mount bike transport rack and discovered that some manufacturers offer military discounts, but require validation through https://id.discount/ . I haven't browsed all of the vendors on their list, but did see Road ID as offering a discount to military and first responders.

This web service claims to validate to sellers, individuals who are or have been military, teachers, or first responders. The mechanism is that you, the buyer, register with them and provide proof of service. Thereafter, any vendor who subscribes to their service will accept you for discount. Since they ask for some personal info I tend to be cautious.

Anyone here go through this verification process? If so, did it unleash a dump of unwanted emails (or worse).

Thanks

Suspicious address.
Of all the sellers there I only recognized RoadID, and I think they offer a Military discount directly... but not sure.

You know what, that sounds familiar and last time I came across that I decided I valued my personal information more than 10% off.

I mean... if Home Depot and Lowe's take my military ID, why can't they?

I'd wager that the data they're gathering is going somewhere, either overtly or not.

I did some background checks and discovered that this business is registered as an LLC with the State of California. The agent is John Keuhn and the business address points to a residence (which has also had other registered businesses). May be above board; however still a bit unsettling. The discount on the hitch I'm interested in is about $125 so it's enticing to register for that sort of savings.

I forget the company that Lowes uses for military id verification. I was a little unhappy about it at first, but apparently it's publically available information. Which also is a little scary, because they wanted enough data to get a good start on identity theft. Hey, 10 percent is 10 percent though.

A lot of companies use id.me to verify if you are a Vet during checkout, I like Saucony running shoes and they use id.me during checkout, Yeti as well.

When I've registered for military discounts, they've simply taken a fax of my CAC or retired ID in addition to the info one normally gives for an online transaction. I didn't bother to find out what this outfit wants, but it wouldn't seem to impose much more than an incremental risk.

I emailed RockyMounts, the company offering the discount, and they said that they have had no problem with this particular service and that they knew a lot of other companies that used them. Why would they expect that "no problems for them" means that the customer offering up private info is not at risk?

I started a fake registration with id.discount to see what they want. It seems that they asked for the same stuff that Home Depot or Lowes wanted, but there was some other info that leads me to believe that they have access to DEERS. Anyhow, I chose not to register.

RockyMounts does offer a 25% discount for Military, but not sure whether that's Active only or includes others.

Hi everyone,

My name's Alan and I'm one of the managers at ID Discount. I came across this thread randomly by Googling, so I figured I'd address a few comments here

No - I hate that! We'll typically send one "welcome" e-mail, then one more as a follow-up reminder that next time you use our service, you won't have to re-verify. This is important because we get a lot of "I've already been verified, how do I get the discount again" questions. So, the follow-up e-mail helps people understand they can now access any offers on our system, without having to go through the process again. We don't have a newsletter and if we do make one someday, it will be opt-in only.

There are now hundreds of domain extensions other than .com, .net and .org. In the coming years, you'll see a lot more businesses with these domain extensions. Ours used to be GruntRoll.com, back when it was just Military and First Responders. When our clients wanted Teachers and Students, we created ID Discount since the name was a bit more fitting.

This is not a rare scenario. But, you also probably didn't browse all 800+ businesses in our directory. Most of our clients are small to medium-sized, of whom you might recognize 10-15. But your colleague next to you might recognize a different 10-15. We do have customers everyone's heard of, such as Ring Doorbells, Enfamil, Clearasil etc.. RoadID is also a wonderful company with great customers, and we love having them on board.

It's illegal to photocopy a Military ID (Chapter 33, Section 701), which is why we don't ask for that. This law doesn't apply to a Veterans Affairs ID, which is one of several preferred, less-sensitive documents you can provide. We also accept something as simple as a postal letter from the Veterans Affairs - or if you're Active Duty, a promotion certificate or LES/DFAS document. On that note - all documents are immediately expunged from our system upon approval. The only thing we retain "data-wise" is the mark on your account that it's been verified, but nothing from the document itself. The less data we have, the less there is to steal. We don't make money on data, we make money from the merchants paying for the verification service.

That's a wager you'd lose; don't put any real money on it. Our founder is a former Marine and takes protecting Veterans extremely seriously.

We do have a partnership with the DMDC, who controls DEERS. Sorry to hear you chose not to register, but you're welcome back anytime!

I have no doubt in my mind that this is correct. There's usually a reason that businesses want a lot of your personal information, like when you "register" a product for the warranty, all the information goes to their marketing department. Really, does a business need to know how much money I make in a year or what my hobbies are just to activate the warranty on a product I just bought from them? People's personal information is worth money.

The thing that worries me is whether or not these businesses with all this personal information are vulnerable to hackers. Seems like every so often we're hearing about businesses suffering from data breaches.

You should put a statement to that effect on your website. I gave it (your website) a quick scan and didn't seen any privacy/data collection policy/assurances. These days people are concerned about that stuff.

Generally anytime someone asks "legit?" it is should raise a red flag. If you have to ask that is a good sign it probably isn't. A good solid company you don't have to worry about usually doesn't elicit "is this legit?". Though I am glad to see the company has responded, meaning maybe they are more likely legit or at least legit enough to care to respond and interact with potential clients.

This sounds like an offer I had with an organization I am in about a year ago. I am not sure it is the same, but in my case the "Discount" scenario was they wanted you to create an account. I read the TOS and learned they were really a data aggregator for sellers and advertisers. I follow the maxim if they want data, "if an online service is free, your privacy is the fee."

Thanks for reaching out and offering more information. I think you know that most internet users are (or should be) cautious about using a service that asks for personal information. Knowing this, I think you should anticipate all of the user concerns and go all out on your web site to assure people that your service does all it can to minimize risk. You did a good job in your response to my original post, why not have the same information (and more) available during the registration process. Endorsements from well-known vendors would be a real plus.

My choosing not to register had more to do with lack of comfort rather than any outright indications that your service was not on the up-and-up.

Again, thanks for the response.

The domain name id.discount is registered to Amazon Technologies Inc.


-Tim-

As a matter of routine I do not do business with any online organization that doesn't share a phone number. I have found over the years that a business that prominently displays their phone number is telling you that they are easily accessible and are happy to have a real conversation with you. Those that don't have a phone number or bury their phone number don't want to be "bothered," so I don't bother them. I take part in a lot of different forums. When someone posts a complaint about an unresponsive online merchant, I go to their website. The phone number of that merchant is most often hard to find.

https://id.discount/