Identity Verification Made Easier (and More Affordable)

| PERG News: March 2026 |

As rental companies, we all need to grow our customers and that means working with new people. ID verification services can help relieve some of the anxiety about working with new renters (see Koerner Camera’s testimonial below). The problem is that ID verification services can be a significant cost. When you investigate identity verification services, comparing pricings and capabilities is not easy, so we’d like to offer some comparison.

What ESTA Offers
First, what does ESTA offer its members? Members can have their own Plaid dashboard, a premium identity verification service, for a subscription of $500/yr. plus $5 per verification for US IDs. For a typical user that’s a total of $560-$600 per year, for which you could gain several rentals and new regular customers. As a trade association we can leverage our collective buying power to put this service within reach for our members, but we need more companies to take advantage of the offer.

As a trade association we can leverage our collective buying power to put this service within reach for our members, but we need more companies to take advantage of the offer.

How it Compares
Pricing for identity verification services is often unclear and varies widely, with premium options that can cost over $1,000 per month. Pricing is based on many factors and there are many add-ons, so the quoted base rates are probably not what you end up paying. From what we can see, a mid-tier companies like Veriff start at $49/month, IDology is $99/mo + $1/check, Subsum is $150/mo minimum, Persona $250+/mo. For a premium service like Plaid the cost is over 1,000/mo. So, the annual cost for more basic services is typically $600 - $3000 and can be a lot more than that.  ESTA’s offering is a premium-level verification service at a significantly lower cost.

Why Plaid
Many services seem to offer similar sounding features like instant ID verification and live person checks, but their methods vary. Plaid uses authoritative date sources, live selfie check, ID matching, and produces are report that includes verified accounts on social media and other platforms as well as phone and email confirmation. It gives you multiple vectors from which to make a judgement. Plaid has higher, faster, and more accurate pass rates (typically above 90% for digital onboarding) than many of its competitors. The process is fast (only a couple minutes) and easy.

Member Experience
Here’s what one of our members told us about their experience with Plaid.

We’ll admit it—we were hesitant to start using Plaid. We assumed it might be clunky, slow, or annoy customers. Instead, it’s been the complete opposite. Plaid is fast, simple, and surprisingly painless. It also takes the anxiety (and personal onus) out of vetting.

Producers treat it as totally normal—just part of doing business these days. It’s actually helped us say yes to clients we might’ve otherwise passed on. In one case, another rental house couldn’t fully verify a producer and turned them away. Plaid gave us the confidence to move forward, and now that client is a solid, returning customer.

Bottom line: Plaid hasn’t lost us business—it’s helped us gain it, while giving us a lot more peace of mind. 

Koerner Camera

The Importance of Growing PERG’s Fraud-Fighting Network
Ten PERG companies are currently using Plaid. We need at least ten more companies to sign up over the next month or so to reach the break-even point for ESTA. If we cannot reach that goal, ESTA faces a difficult choice, but we feel certain that this member benefit is truly a value to the industry and will gain even greater value the more people that use it. Used in conjunction with RENTAL GUARD, this is an opportunity for PERG members to further strengthen our network for fighting fraud.

You can see what the dashboard looks like and view a demonstration of the identity check process HERE.

To talk to us about it and sign up please email plaid@esta.org. 

Rental Guard Update and PERG’s Commitment to Theft Prevention

| PERG News: March 2026 |

As you may know, the industry’s central source for fraud and theft information, RENTAL GUARD, has been undergoing renovation. The completion of this major project later this year will mark an important transition for ESTA from essentially renting the platform to owning it, resulting in major cost savings. This helps ensure that this valued industry resource remains funded and affordable. PERG wishes to thank two major insurance underwriters, Arch and Hiscox, that have sponsored RENTAL GUARD through this transition. We applaud their leadership and farsightedness in helping ESTA ensure we continue to develop fraud and theft prevention measures. When rental companies have access to shared theft information, they can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses annually and avoid the deleterious, unproductive, grind that comes with processing theft incidents. 

Rental companies want to stay up to date on trends in theft incidents. We know the value of RENTAL GUARD’s alerts, which enable the industry to spread the word very quickly and easily. However, PERG has seen a decline in the number of professional rental companies that are registered for RENTAL GUARD. Theft is a problem that the rental community has no choice but to address together, collaboratively. It is critical that rental companies continue to submit theft reports, questionable customer reports, and new customer reference inquiries. It is impossible to know precisely how many thefts have been avoided by companies simply sharing information on RENTAL GUARD, but we know what happens when they do not. 

Many companies participate in local networks that share fraud and theft information with nearby colleagues. While we applaud these efforts, we encourage companies to see the global picture. We know professional criminals strike unannounced in new cities all the time. To combat this, a local network is not sufficient. We strongly encourage rental companies to use RENTAL GUARD in addition to local networks for sharing information.

What You Can Do About Missing Equipment on Common Carrier

| PERG News: June 2025 |

In May 2025, Cinema Shot, in Colorado, shipped a $77,400 Fujinon HA42 x 9.7 BERD-U48 lens via FedEx to Fujinon in New Jersey, returning a lens that was on loan. When the recipients opened the package at its destination the carton was mangled and re-taped and the lens case was not in the carton. Instead, they found a 7-inch wheelbarrow tire. 

Consistently, every year, 5% of the missing equipment reports filed on RENTAL GUARD are losses that occur during transit via one of the common carriers. Very few of these losses are subsequently recovered, leading some people to speculate darkly about what happens in these cases. But there are in fact effective steps rental companies can take to avoid these losses and to recover equipment when it goes missing in transit, as was demonstrated in the case where Fujifilm received a wheelbarrow tire.

As soon as Fujifilm notified Cinema Shot about the loss, Kay Baker’s team immediately took steps that were strategic and swift, and surprisingly, a few days later, FedEx found the lens and returned it. She says, “I was just stunned to be honest because we all know that once equipment is lost (or stolen) while in transit, it rarely if ever resurfaces. Miracles do happen.”

But, in the immortal words of Edna Mo, luck favors the prepared. Quick action, and having documentation readily at hand, made the difference. Kays says, “It seems it is all a matter of the timing. The longer you take to get all the claims filed and documentation to support the claim, the less likely of locating the loss.” Within a couple hours of hearing about the missing lens, the rental company had filed the claim and provided pictures and supporting documents that enabled an immediate investigation. 

 “I contacted the [Fujifilm] Operations Manager promptly and asked him to be certain the warehouse staff retained the box. I had him send me pictures of all sides of the box as well as the weight the box with the Tire.” When Cinema Shot shipped the package, it weighed 38 pounds. The carton delivered to Fujifilm weighed seven pounds.

Mangled package

The tire

A change in the weight of the package has been an important factor in several recovery stories reported to PERG. The weight is logged at each station where the package changes hands in their routing system. A change in weight at some point it the journey points FedEx and insurance investigators to the location of the mishap.  

“I immediately notified our insurance broker, Taylor and Taylor, that we had a probable loss and sent the pictures to them. I told them once I filed a claim with FedEx and posted the loss on RENTAL GUARD, I would furnish those documents to them, as well as to Fujinon, who would be contacting the police. Fujinon furnished me with the police report, case number, and detective’s name on the following Monday morning.”

I also contacted the FedEx station manager here and had him connect me to FedEx security in Colorado so that they could escalate the claim and commence their investigation. I was not going to wait for the claim to meander through their various claims channels because they can take up to 14 days before security is notified and would actively investigate. By then, it definitely would have been too late to recover anything.”

Kay feels that having the shipment insured by FedEx may have helped get the case on the carrier’s security/operations manager’s radar. FedEx has limited liability per package. “We always add a nominal amount of insurance to the shipments. If the value is more than 50% higher than our deductible, we insure for the deductible, or a minimum of $500 to $1,000 depending on replacement cost . . . Hard to say for sure, but I do feel strongly our added insurance coupled with filing the claims swiftly did make a big difference.” 

“The claims adjuster was going to have their legal department review the case to see if they would ask FedEx for reimbursement of any claim paid out due to negligence on their part. I’m not certain if that would have been successful; however, the threat of being held liable for that loss could be sobering. Thankfully, none of this became necessary since we recovered the lens, but it is worth noting for anyone who may have a similar experience in the future.”

Ways to avoid losses and to help recover items if they are lost in transit:

1. Ship items by expedited service such as overnight or two-day delivery options, not by ground. This reduces the amount of time the package is in transit, offers more detailed tracking, and streamlines the routing of the shipment. 

 

2. Insure shipments to put a loss on FedEx’s radar quickly.  

 

3. Duplicate labeling and paperwork inside over-boxed shipments. Shipping labels can be torn off cardboard packaging and can be easily peeled off shipping cases (Pelican and SKB in particular due to the nature of the case material).  

Before placing into the over-box:

• Affix a shipping label to the lens case. 

• Include a copy of the packing list INSIDE the case in addition to a duplicate P/L on the over-box carton.

• Include the origin and destination addresses on the P/L.

• Affix a duplicate shipping label to the outer over-box.

• When not over-boxing, place the same identifying documents INSIDE the shipping case. For multiple carton shipments, at minimum, place them inside the master shipping label case. 

 

4. Seal containers with security tape and strapping, as necessary. 

• Seal cartons with heavy duty clear carton sealing tape on all ends, top and bottom.

• Go back over the clear tape with security tape as an added deterrent.

• Use band strapping on all cartons more than 25 pounds or where the contents are high value.

5. Take pictures of all sides of the new shipment/carton before the carrier picked it up—all sides, plus top and bottom. Proof that the carton was not compromised at point of shipment will be important if a claim must be filed.

This incident demonstrates that when professional rental companies are prepared, establish effective procedures, and act quickly when there is an incident, it is possible to motivate action by the carriers and have a positive outcome.

RENTAL GUARD Aids Burbank Police, Insurance Companies Take Note

| PERG News: March 2025 |

Ryan Levon Roman was already on probation for previous thefts within Los Angeles County and was out of compliance with his terms of probation as of August 2024. On February 28, 2025, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed one count of Grand Theft, a felony, against Roman. This, combined with the numerous theft victims who have come forward since his arrest by Burbank police, means that Ryan Roman may finally face some serious jail time.  

The news spread quickly among the PERG rental community, all of whom know his name. Over the past two years rental companies and private equipment owners have generated eighteen theft reports and Questionable Customer alerts with Roman’s name in them in RENTAL GUARD. When the Burbank police put the word out that they were looking for other companies with similar cases against Roman, PERG responded with the data we’ve collected. Captain Mark Stohl was one of the police officers who attended the PERG Town Hall several years ago, in which PERG invited representatives from the LA police jurisdictions, insurance companies, and rental companies for a meeting at ARRI‘s old location on Burbank Blvd. In that meeting, police were briefed on the epidemic of theft faced by the motion picture/television industry. Since then, law enforcement has used RENTAL GUARD as a resource. Stohl was able to add eighteen police reports to those being collected by Detective Elena Arias, who is handling Roman’s case. 

Roman has somehow escaped justice for a remarkably long time. It is worth noting, that law enforcement located the equipment that led to his recent arrest Roman thanks to a well-hidden Air Tag. Long-time observers of Roman’s prolific efforts have speculated that he has an overseas contact to whom he ships the stolen gear. However, it now appears his operation is far less sophisticated than that. Police believe he worked alone and that, when he stole equipment, he pawned it within the hour. They have recovered numerous pawn shop slips of serialized items that are suspected of being stolen from additional victims. They are asking for anyone with any information to please contact them (see flyer below for contact information).

The events surrounding Roman’s arrest have highlighted the value of RENTAL GUARD, a free industry resource that turns ten years old this year. This comes just as PERG is developing version 3.0 of RENTAL GUARD and working to persuade insurance underwriters that a contribution to RENTAL GUARD is a worth-while investment. RENTAL GUARD’s sole sponsor is currently Hiscox insurance. PERG relies on the big insurance underwriters to defray the costs of maintaining the platform. The current events have served as a powerful reminder.

PERG thanks RENTAL GUARD sponsor

Thieves Impersonating Legitimate Production Companies

| PERG News: March 2025 |

Within the past six months PERG members have noted some recurring trends with regards to equipment rented and not returned. There have been a series of thefts and attempted thefts in which the thieves impersonated legitimate production companies. In a couple of cases, they posed as wedding photography companies, using the name and company name of real wedding photographers. Steve Kopacz runs Wild Light Films out of Florida but shoots weddings all over the country. He owns his own FX-3 and Canon cameras and never rents equipment. Nevertheless, his name and company appear in three questionable customer alerts filed this year. The thieves target websites, like Steve’s, that provides no direct contact information. This means the rental company cannot verify the phone number against that of the “client” who called them, nor the address, or email. On these websites communication is only provided via a webform, so there is no immediate way to verify the renter is from the company they say they are from.

PERG has verified that Steve is in fact the owner of the Wild Light Films website, and after speaking with him about the problem, Steve added the tag below to his website.

PERG recommends:

• Consider it a RED FLAG if the website does not provide contact information that matches the “client’s” information.
• Be aware of the wedding photography MO.
• Check email addresses and phone numbers for EXACT matches. Each of these recent thefts used email addresses similar to but not exactly like that on the company website. 
• Have the potential client email you directly from the posted website/email address and or phone number.  Or have the potential client direct message the rental house from the actual social media outlet (i.e. Instagram). Always contact the actual company some way, before proceeding.
• If the email is the company name with extra letters EX: John Pictures - johnpicturesllc@gmail.com, email johnpictures@gmail.com separately to verify their requested rental

Other red flags that members have noted in relation to these theft attempts:

• Non-rental company references or rental references that only operate on peer-to-peer marketplaces.
• Short term insurance policy or a long-term policy that starts within days of the rental.
• No push back or haggling about the rental rate.

Help protect the industry; always post a QCA or Theft report. The perpetrator will immediately target someone else if you turn down a rental. If you suspect a fraudster, report them through RENTAL GUARD Questionable Customer Alert (QCA) and help protect our industry. Theft affects everyone, even if they don’t succeed in getting your equipment. No one needs upward pressure on insurance rates. 

ESTA Begins Onboarding Rental Companies with Plaid Identify Verification System

| PERG News: March 2025 |

Half a dozen PERG members are now in the process of getting set up with their company-branded Plaid dashboard and scheduling a staff training session to begin using it. Michael Koerner reports “Using the Plaid screening process helps us navigate the fraud and scams that rental houses like Koerner Camera are exposed to on a regular basis. It's a great value, all rental houses should use it.”

ESTA is thrilled to make Plaid Identity Verification Services available to our members. ESTA/PERG's demonstration and Q&A session is available on ESTA's YouTube Channel.

In this PERG Coffee Break, ESTA Executive Director, Erin Grabe, demonstrated Plaid explaining what is it, who uses it, what tools Plaid provides for fraud detection, what the dashboard looks like, and how your staff performs the verification process. 

Find out more at: https://www.esta.org/PERG/Initiatives/plaid.html
For sign-up information email us at plaid@esta.org.

Until now, sophisticated automated identification verification services have been out of reach for many ESTA/PERG members. Plaid is one of the leading services trusted by over 8000 leading brands. ESTA is thrilled to make the service available and affordable to ESTA members by a special arrangement with Plaid that leverages our collective buying power as a trade association. 

Level-up Your Fraud-Detection Powers
Plaid’s website slogan is, “More customers, minus the fraudsters.” Plaid uses a streamlined process that takes only a couple minutes and provides information that can tell you if a new "customer" is a risk. We are hopeful that access to Plaid will greatly enhance new-customer vetting procedures, save staff time, provide greater peace of mind, and help save companies from serious losses due to fraud. If you detect a bad actor, you can share that information via RENTAL GUARD and benefit the entire community. 

What Does Plaid Do and How Does it Work?
The Plaid system confirms a customer’s identity information in less than three minutes, while simultaneously analyzing a wide range of risk signals. These include device and IP checks, email checks, phone checks, stolen and synthetic identity risk scoring, network risk checks, and behavioral analytics. 

To verify a customer, your staff generates a link using your very own Plaid dashboard. They email or text the link to the customer. The client uses their mobile device to enter identifying information, a live photo, and a photo of their ID. Plaid checks the information and the ID against regulated data sources. Plaid also checks whether email and phone number are new, disposable, or associated with a data breach. It detects the use of VPN or Tor for time zone and geolocation mismatch. It looks for fabricated, manipulated, or stolen identity information. And it performs behavioral analysis on things like typing speed, accuracy, and method of data entry to identify behavior typically associated with risky individuals, fraud rings, or bots.

What do I Get and What does in Cost?
When members enroll, they are provided their own easy-to-use Plaid dashboard, co-branded with your company logo along and ESTA's logo. ESTA creates log-in credentials for as many of your employees as you wish so they each can create verification links and check results. You can customize your company's dashboard with the risk rules you want Plaid to use and set to your risk tolerance level to create a consistent go/no-go determination across your company.

You can send the verification link to the customer via your email client or, as an option, send the links via SMS via ESTA's SMS service provider.

Fixed Fees
Plaid Account $500/yr.
SMS link sending $5 per month, billed quarterly

Per Use Fees (billed quarterly)
U.S. IDs                                 $5/verification
Canada and UK IDs         $6/verification
IDs from all other countries $8/verification

In a recent RENTAL GUARD report, a Sony Burano was rented and not returned. The paperwork was flawless, the references checked out, the insurance was verified, and the credit card went through. The reason the rental appeared normal was that the person renting the equipment was using a good fake ID of a real person. A Plaid verification would have identified this fraud. The fraudsters would not even have been able to complete the verification. In fact, it is quite likely that when you tell fraudsters that they need to complete an ID verification, that they will never complete it and just disappear from your Friday afternoon.

Thieves have become better and better and personifying producers. Rental companies need more sophisticated tools to root them out. We are very hopeful that Plaid will give them that boost!

The Return of Ryan Roman and Other Reasons to Use the QCA

| PERG News: January 2025 |

Ryan Roman’s name appears in sixteen different reports on RENTAL GUARD. He is what you might call a regular. Between June 2022 and 2023 Roman tried to hit almost every rental company out there. Rental companies know his name, they don’t even have to check RENTAL GUARD’s Watch List. It is like a bad joke that is still being retold again and again. “Oh, not that one again!”

Yet Ryan and other criminals are still making the rounds, renting equipment from small rental companies, private owners, and peer-to-peer marketplaces and disappearing with the equipment. 

Our concern is not that PERG members are going to fall for Roman anymore, but that, given layoffs over the past two years, that rental companies may no longer have their staff registered to get RENTAL GUARD alerts for the NEXT Ryan Roman. I have removed a great many names from RENTAL GUARD’s registry over the past six months because the alert emails were bouncing. Later this year, when the industry starts to get busy again, every rental company will want to have all the appropriate people registered to receive alerts, report questionable customers, and (please no) make theft reports if necessary. You do not want to be hassling with registration when you are dealing with all the fallout of an equipment theft, you just want to make the report.

Many rental companies have joined with local networks to communicate fraud information to other houses they are friendly with. That’s great, as far as it goes. However, to make a real impact on theft, we need the whole industry to be aware of identified threats. We need people in New York to know about the guy who just hit a company in LA (or anywhere in between), and vice versa, because he could be at their doorstep tomorrow. The way to do that is by making a Questionable Customer Alert in RENTAL GUARD. 

Theft affects everyone. It affects insurance rates. It affects availability of hard-to-find gear. It makes our industry less profitable. RENTAL GUARD has been successful in enabling companies to avoid fraud, to involve law enforcement, and sometimes to even recover equipment and make arrests. Companies can push back in a meaningful way when we work together. The way to handle theft that involves the least cost and hardship is to avoid it in the first place. Everyone knows, once the equipment is out the door, the chance of recovery drops significantly. For this reason, the Questionable Customer Alert is probably the most important feature of RENTAL GUARD. We urge everyone to use it whenever you reject a client because they seem suspicious.

If you are not a member of PERG, consider joining so you can access the member-only fraud detection features of RENTAL GUARD (among other reasons!).

RENTAL Guard Bug Fixes

| PERG News: March 2024 |

We want to make you aware of a software limitation in RENTAL GUARD and what we are doing about it. Over the past several months some rental companies experienced problems reporting thefts to RENTAL GUARD. The problem is due to the server timing out before the person is able to complete the report. This issue has been addressed temporarily by extending the time before the server times out. A more permanent fix will be completed later this year.

We are sorry for the frustration that this issue has caused some of our members. We make the following recommendations. 

1. Complete the report in one go, and in less than 120 minutes. Do not leave the browser open pending submittal of the theft report. This will result in a complete loss of all the data you have entered.
2. Have the necessary materials ready before you start the report including a description of the event, list of equipment, insurance contact information, and police contact (if applicable).
3. Double check that all the required fields were filled out. If you do not have certain required information, like the value of the lost item, enter “NA” in that field.
4. If you still encounter problems, send us all the information to the PERG Manager and we will get the report submitted within 24 hours.

We have had several reports of doctored certificates of insurance (please see Evolution of Renting with Intent to Steal, in this Newsletter). We strongly urge all RENTAL GUARD users to submit a Questionable Customer Alert any time you turn down a client due to suspicion of criminal intent. Shutting the door on theft-by-rental incidents is our only path to decreasing these attacks. 

RENTAL GUARD is the central industry-wide depository for theft information. Regardless of what other channels you use, we strongly urge all rental companies to use RENTAL GUARD for: 

• Watch list (names associated with suspected or actual criminal activity)
• Theft reports (your best chance of recovering gear and preventing it from being resold)
• Report Questionable Customers
• Make Inquiries about New Customers

Evolution of Renting with Intent to Steal

| PERG News: March 2024 |

The following update is provided by Taylor & Taylor

There have been several phases in the evolution of how criminals rent-to-steal.

1. “Customers” initially would purchase short-term production insurance for equipment rentals only to never return with the equipment. Short-term insurance became a red flag. 
2. “Customers” then began purchasing annual production insurance for equipment rentals, only to never return the equipment. 
3. “Customers” would buy annual production insurance and claim that the equipment was stolen from them while out on rental. Unlike the earlier generations above, these folks would stay in touch with the rental house, file a police report, and take pictures of the damaged vehicle to show visible signs of entry. 
4. Recently, “customers” have created their own certificates of insurance with fictitious information that may include the broker, production company, insurance carrier and/or policy numbers. The broker or carrier phone numbers listed on some of the certificates will direct you to the thief who will then answer the call and confirm the information on the certificate of insurance is accurate. 

 Steps to Take When Vetting New Customers 

1. Know your customer or someone who can attest to them being a member of the production community. 
2. KEEP A WATCH ON RENTAL GUARD TO SEE THEFT PATTERNS
   AND SUSPICIOUS CUSTOMER ALERTS. 
3. Reach out to other equipment vendors from whom the customer has rented equipment in the past. Do not rely on their references to another production company or person. Use the New Customer Inquiry on RENTAL GUARD and PERG (or other) Slack channels.
4. Proceed with caution when verifying COIs. Some thieves have taken to creating fraudulent websites for insurance programs and brokers that contain phone numbers and email addresses that will send your communications directly to them. Attempting to verify a certificate of insurance that contains such fraudulent information will only lead you to a “friendly” co-conspirator for confirmation. 
5. Confirm the existence of the corporate entity with the Department of State. This record will also show you the date of first filing. Beware of entities with recent filings unless they are a known entity to your business. 
6. Verify the project exists on which the equipment is intended to be used. Film permits and stage rentals can be verified by independent third parties. 
7. Use Google Earth or a similar website to verify the location of the production company. In many instances the location address provided has turned out to be a storefront P.O. Box service and in one instance it was a vacant lot. 
8. Verify the date a broker or production website was created. One method to do this would be to open the source code with "CTRL+U" (Windows) or "Command+U" (Mac). Look for "date" or "published". Verify the website SSL certificate. A new website should be a red flag. 
9. Get a bank reference and confirm how long the account has been in existence with the bank representative. Again, be wary of co-conspirators verifying an account or credit card. 
10. Never allow a first-time renter to send a courier to pick up the gear regardless of the circumstances. 
11. Get two pieces of corroborating identification from the person renting the gear such as a driver’s license and passport. Take copies of these documents. Some thieves create fake forms of identification or use stolen identities. 
12. Be wary of renters using different email addresses to communicate with you or on the rental paperwork. 
13. Ask the names of local crew members working on the job. If none, have them hire a local crew person known to you and put that person in charge of the gear. 
14. Search the names of the person(s) renting, picking up, providing identification, name of the production company – see how many listings, what type of info is on-line? Is there one hit? Are there any similar names that pop up? 
15. How does the renter promote their company to obtain work? 

You can download a PDF of this information here. 

Rental Companies Fall Victim to Preventable Theft-by-Rental

| PERG News: August 2023 |

It's a mixture of sympathy and frustration that we feel when we hear about a rental company getting ripped off by fraudsters, but we feel the frustration most acutely when the criminals’ identities were posted within our community prior to the theft. All rental companies, whether members of PERG or not, are strongly urged to double check that appropriate members of your staff are registered for RENTAL GUARD. Receiving theft alerts and checking the RENTAL GUARD WATCH LIST enables rental companies to know about threats in a timely manner as soon as they are identified by other rental companies. 

It is in every rental company’s interest to take advantage of information that is shared. PERG members receive push-email notifications from RENTAL GUARD whenever a questionable customer is reported via the Questionable Customer Alert. However, non-member rental companies must be proactive and check the RENTAL GUARD WATCHLIST.

The WATCH LIST is one of several important fraud prevention features that are part of the RENTAL GUARD platform. There are also other channels through which fraud and theft information is shared, Slack channels for example. These are valuable, immediate communication channels as well. To join PERG’s Slack channel, please send a request to PERG. LACameraSubrentals is another Slack channel developed by rental companies in LA, for rental agents by rental agents, to make sub-rentals easier. It is another source for questionable customer information. LACameraSubrentals is unaffiliated with any business, organization or institution.

However, RENTAL GUARD is the single, centralized, international depository for sharing theft information. We strongly urge all rental companies to report questionable customers through RENTAL GUARD. 

Every month, I remove email addresses from RENTAL GUARD because of personnel changes within rental companies. We want to be sure that rental companies are considering who to add to RENTAL GUARD to make up for those who have been removed. 

We also want to urge those who use RENTAL GUARD to make others aware of it, especially young rental companies that may be more vulnerable. RENTAL GUARD is a free service established for and by rental companies. It has proved effective in preventing equipment theft for rental companies that check it.

Fraud and Theft Meeting

| PERG News: September 2022 |

  

This fall, PERG will host a virtual membership meeting on fraud and theft. Last year, our industry experienced a record-setting number of break-ins to rental houses and the dollar value of equipment stolen. While all rental equipment companies felt the impact that these thefts had on their businesses, for some the frequency of break-ins felt overwhelming. 

As an organization, PERG provides the industry with a forum as to how these thefts are happening and an opportunity to have a dialogue on ways to reduce the frequency of thefts and amount of equipment stolen from rental company members. 

RENTAL GUARD, has proven over time to be the single, central, international repository for theft information. Our meeting will encompass a review of historical data collected but more importantly discuss those security approaches which have proven to be most effective at protecting rental equipment companies' most valuable assets, their rental inventories. 

Watch for invitations to PERG Fraud and Theft Meeting.

Leveraging Our Agency Against Theft

 | PERG News: September 2021 |

The spate of break-ins that began more than a month ago in Atlanta has continued, with repeated attempted and successful thefts at the same rental facilities. We have seen similar streaks in the past where a series of rental companies are targeted. At a time when there are shortages of equipment due to a high level of production combined with COVID-related supply pipeline problems, having assets stolen is particularly frustrating. 

PERG urges rental companies to use RENTAL GUARD for these important reasons:

• Theft reports provide notification to other companies that may be targeted next and arms them with information about the mode of theft being used.

• RENTAL GUARD provides law enforcement a way to quickly verify that equipment they may come across is stolen which enables them to take immediate action and not miss opportunity that they may never get again. 

• Theft reports show a pattern of activity. Being able to show that an incident is part of a bigger, repeated crime scheme can help persuade law enforcement to pursue the matter, when they otherwise would not. We’ve seen this in several cases that ended with the recovery of equipment.

• You can use the searchable database to identify stolen equipment if it is offered for sale, saving you from potentially purchasing a valueless asset that could be confiscated at any time and would possibly involve you in a crime.

Some principles to live by:

• The risk of theft is often only obvious to people right AFTER they are a victim. The only safe assumption is that every rental company is, at all times, a target of theft. Remind your staff and don’t let your guard down.

• Although insurance will make a company whole for a given incident, it costs them and the rental industry as a whole in the long run. Active use of RENTAL GUARD and similar measures helps fight perceptions that could drive up the cost of insurance more widely. There are broader reasons for rental companies to do all they can to urge action and support law enforcement’s efforts.

Take Advantage of PERG’s Subrental Request Feature

| PERG News: June 2021 |

Earlier this year PERG launched the Subrental Availability Request feature on the RENTAL GUARD platform. The feature enables PERG members to send an instant email requesting an item they need to subrent and have it received by all other PERG members who may have the kind of equipment they are looking for (camera, lighting, or AV). 

We reached out to some of our members to find out what their experience has been using the feature so far and the answers was generally positive, but to make the feature a true benefit, more people need to use it.

By default, everyone who has a RENTAL GUARD account was opted in to the Subrental Request feature, but each user needs to adjust their account settings to specify the type of equipment you have available (see this video for instructions).

In addition, we encourage PERG members to consider giving more of their staff access to RENTAL GUARD. We recognize that the staff who might be looking for a subrental item may not be the same staff who are currently registered to receive theft alerts. Members are permitted/encouraged have as many registered users of RENTAL GUARD as they wish. Alternatively, some companies prefer to have one account and then automatically forward RENTAL GUARD emails to selected staff. That gives them better control when staff change positions or there are new hires. Either way, our point is make sure that people that could be looking for a subrental item or who would respond to a request for a subrental item are aware of the feature and use it when needed.

As the industry comes back to full capacity, there are already reports of shortages of equipment. Using the Subrental Request enables PERG members to find equipment they need quickly. We hope it will save your staff time in calling around for items.

New Subrental Tool for PERG Members

  | PERG News: March 2021 |

Thursday, March 18th

12 p.m. Eastern | 11 a.m. Central | 10 a.m. Mountain | 9 a.m. Pacific

| REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT |

Join fellow PERG members for a live demonstration of the new Subrental Availability Request feature of RENTAL GUARD. The tool enables members to leverage the PERG network to quickly locate hard-to-find subrental items. The feature is intended to help save your staff time and enable you to receive requests from other members to sub-rent gear. It is free and available exclusively for PERG members. 

Come check out the demo and see how to configure your account settings to start receiving the subrental requests you want.

Made Personnel Changes? You May Need to Update Your RENTAL GUARD and Other Accounts

| PERG News: October 2020 |

If your company is registered to receive alerts from RENTAL GUARD, and if you receive the PERG Newsletters, and invitations to PERG events, we want to be sure the right people are still receiving those communications. Most companies have had layoffs and personnel changes over the past 8 months, and we are receiving a lot of bounced emails from our communications. 

RENTAL GUARD. Your company is permitted to register as many employees as you like for RENTAL GUARD. Some companies choose to have one account and distribute the alerts internally, which is also a great way to handle it. We have deleted a few dozen RENTAL GUARD accounts after receiving bounced emails, so please be sure the right people are registered at you company. Register here.

PERG Newsletters. Please just shoot Harry an email with the email addresses of people you would like to receive PERG’s Newsletters (normally there are seven issues annually). The Newsletters are a great way to stay current on PERG initiatives and topics of interest to PERG members.

Your Main Contact. Most PERG event invitations and other communications are sent to the main contact you provided. If that person may have changed, please go online and edit your account or contact us with an update. We hope to see all our members returning to full staffing soon! Please keep us updated.

Getting the most out of RENTAL GUARD?

| PERG News: March 2019 |

Here are four tips for all RENTAL GUARD users. 

1. Do your new employees know they can: 

• Make a New Customer Reference Inquiry to get independent verification of a new customer from other PERG members. 
• Check/download the Watch List of questionable customers. 
• Post a Questionable Customer Alert—to shut down potential criminals who may be fishing by alerting others. 
• Check serial numbers before purchasing used equipment. 
• Report missing equipment—It’s your best chance for recovering equipment and information in Rental Guard directly helps law enforcement take action and make arrests internationally. 

2. Reduce unwanted emails. You can elect to filter alerts, so you receive only the ones that are of interest to your business. From My Settings in your user profile, it is easy to customize your account using the check boxes shown below.

3. Your company can have as many people registered for rental guard as you need. Some companies set up a group email so they can control who gets added and removed internally. Or, you can have your employees register individually. Your choice. Either way, the more people receiving alerts, the better informed your staff can be! Please let us know if an email address at you URL is no longer valid by contacting Harry Box. 

4. Be sure your employees understand that your insurance does not normally cover “voluntary parting.” Customer policies often have a waiver for equipment taken from unoccupied vehicles. These are two of the most common methods of theft. For helpful tips see Members News and Resources on the Rental Guard site.

GPS Leads Sheriff’s Deputies to Stolen Equipment in Barstow

| PERG News: March 2019 |

On February 18th a truck taking equipment to a NETFLIX production was reported stolen. It was later recovered by California Highway Patrol, but the equipment was missing. GPS data indicated the truck has made two stops, and going to a location in the desert, Sheriff’s Deputies located and estimated $1,280,066 in stolen equipment in addition to firearms, methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia. The following day, two additional items were located valued at about $80,000. There are four suspects listed on the police report.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact Deputy Dickey of the Barstow Sheriff’s Station. Callers wishing to remain anonymous are urged to call the WE-Tip Hotline at 800-78-CRIME (27463) or you may leave information on the WE-TipHotline.