12.04.03

President Signs Cantwell's Identity Theft Protections Into Law

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Today Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) identity theft protections became law. Cantwell attended a ceremony at the White House where President Bush signed her identity theft provisions into law, as part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act reauthorization. This event is the culmination of years of hard work by Cantwell to provide law enforcement officials and identity theft victims with the tools they need to battle identity theft.

"I am pleased that we have given victims some critical help to fight identity theft," said Cantwell. "Too many people have fallen victim to identity theft and been unable to take back their good names because of inconsistencies in the process. These new tools make it easier for them to move on with their lives."

Cantwell's bill, which will be known as the FACT Act – the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act of 2003 – will protect victims' credit ratings from fraudulent transactions that are a result of identity theft; enable victims to have access to business records of charges in their names made by identity thieves; restore consumer confidence; and save businesses money.

Identity theft victims and law enforcement officials have supported Cantwell's bill, as have businesses.

Microsoft's Managing Director of Federal Government Affairs Jack Krumholtz explains, "By giving identity theft victims the ability to get information about fraudulent transactions, the Cantwell provision will not only aid in clearing their names, but provides guidance to businesses helping in those efforts."

"It is our hope that in easing the work of identity theft victims to clear their names, providing guidance to businesses and law enforcement seeking to help ID theft victims, and potentially reducing future fraud, the Cantwell provision will also help curb the costs ID theft causes both the victims and affected businesses."

Some businesses initially fought some of these provisions until Cantwell pointed out that they were losing $38 billion a year to identity theft.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that complaints of identity theft increased 87 percent between 2001 and 2002, and over 161,000 complaints were received by the agency last year. A July 2003 study by Gartner, Inc. found that there was a 79 percent increase in identity theft in the past year alone.

The U.S. Secret Service has estimated that consumers nationwide lose $745 million to identity theft each year.

Cantwell's efforts to protect identity theft victims are supported by the Identity Theft Victim's Resource Center, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Center for the Victims of Crime, and the Information Technology Industry Council.

Cantwell's original bill, The Identity Theft Victims Assistance Act, passed the Senate by unanimous consent in the 107 th Congress, but was never brought to a vote in the House. By adding her bill to the FACT Act, which survived partisan scrutiny and passed in both chambers, identity theft victims no longer have to wait for action.

Cantwell's identity theft bill helps victims and law enforcement in four key ways:

1. It ensures that ID theft victims are able to protect their credit rating from further damage by requiring credit reporting agencies to block information on fraudulent transactions resulting from identity theft. The provision will ensure that, with one phone call, consumers can have certainty that the bad information on their credit records will be blocked by credit reporting agencies and it will remain blocked while providing consumers a chance to demonstrate that the transaction is the result of fraud.

2. It creates a national standardized process for a person to establish he or she is a victim of identity theft, much like the Federal Trade Commission's affidavit. Currently, without this standard, an identity theft may use a different address or Social Security number than the victim's, and a business will refuse to deal with the victim because they are unable to provide the correct verifying information.

3. It requires that, once a business has verified that an individual is a victim, the business has thirty days to provide all application and transaction records to the victim. These records include such critical information as where the identity thief is receiving mail, what Social Security number he or she is using, and what the thief's signature looks like. This information is critical to the victim in proving to creditors that they could not have made the charges they are being assessed.

4. It allows law enforcement to act as the victim's agent in obtaining business records. By allowing law enforcement to have quick access to this evidence, the amendment will improve the ability of law enforcement to find and prosecute identity thieves.

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