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New Legislation to Combat Identity Theft
coondoggie writes to tell us the Washington Post is reporting that new legislation in a numbers of states and the District of Columbia allows consumers to place a "security freeze" on their credit files. "For the millions of consumers who receive notice each year that their personal or financial data was lost or stolen, a preemptive security freeze can offer peace of mind. It blocks businesses and potential fraudsters from gaining access to a consumer's credit report and score and from granting new lines of credit in the consumer's name. In many states, consumers who want to remove the freeze can use a special identification number to unlock access to their credit file."
I wonder how many people will give up their secret security freeze number to phishers?
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Whoever lets someone use a stolen identity to get a loan or credit card or whatever should be responsible for all damages. That means forgiving the loan and restoring the credit of the victim as well as paying damanges if the victim's credit history took a hit.
Seriously, it's not my job to make sure you verify the identity of your clients and I shouldnt have any consequences if you dont do it right.
Also, anybody who loses data used to steal an identity should be responsible for the consequences. If you run over a pedestrian on a sidewalk you pay te medical bills right?
Really, how many people who haven't been the victims of fraud are going to spend money AND TIME putting these "freezes" on their records?
Instead, why not "freeze" them by default?
Then if the customer WANTS to open a new credit account, the fee to "unfreeze" can be rolled into the new account.
If the customer wants someone to do a credit check on him, the fee can be rolled into the new account OR paid by the organization doing the check.
Why pass a law that doesn't, by default, protect EVERYONE?
But when you need the credit you need it.
If its as simple as calling the credit agency and supplying another number to them, aren't the criminals just going to start swapping these numbers as well as credit card numbers?
It doesn't stop anything, just introduces a new charge to pay.
liqbase
I was thinking this exact same thing.
How often in a year do you open new credit lines? There will be times in your life where you need instant access to get new credit lines, also many times where you are settled and would be better off frozen.
At the same time, this prevents nothing and only complicates the process. Thieves will adjust and unfreeze your account. If they have your identity, they are you. what do you do if you dont remmeber your recurity code, you call and have it reset. but you is them in this case. they still got you.
Now it opens up another way your ex can harras you. They call up as you and freeze your credit line with a code you dont know.
does it also prevent your credit report from getting pulled? that sounds like a nice way to hide from creditors you owe money too.
Dont get me wrong, I like the idea. but nothing is ever simple.
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
I could make a very long winded post about this, but what I believe is really very simple: all personal info should be private by default.
Any time anyone wants any of of my personal info, be it SS#, Credit Report, phone number, address, email address, et al. they should be required to get my authorization before it can be released or even used. Kinda like medical/health info except done a lot more robustly. I'd go so far as to advocate serious jail time for individuals who abuse my personal info, for instance all the laptops that various government agencies manage to lose. I'd hope the threat of years in a federal penitentiary would do the trick.
I'm not holding my breath, but it pisses me off to no end that I have to maintain so much of a defense of my information.
Politicians are like diapers - they should be changed frequently and for the same reasons.
What keeps the perp from stealing your identity, freezing your record, and then using the ID number they give him to loot your accounts while you're locked out?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I'm still amiss as to how people can still get their personal data stolen and their lives ruined by thieves in this way. To me, the biggest problem is the credit reporting agencies themselves who are very anti-consumer. By that, I mean they will very easily and quickly put on a bad credit remark, but are slow to remove it if it's a mistake. Even then, the whole idea of verifying identity in financial transactions is very loose to these guys who only require a name and SSN.
This is one of the problems that requires long-overdue federal legislation to remedy. It needs to consist of the following:
* Complete elimination of the use of SSNs by non-governmental agencies to track individuals, including employers and insurers
* Disallowing tracking numbers for enumeration of individuals to remain the same across any two or more private organizations
* Requirement of independently-verifiable photo and/or hashed/digitally-signed/analog biometric verification of the purchaser for large purchases on credit (not all of the above necessarily - even an original copy of a fingerprint plus a photograph of the person with the contract would be sufficient)
* Increased onus on creditors to prove that the alleged debtor was, in fact, the person responsible for the purchase or transgression in question via the identification as above
* Severe criminal penalties (up to life imprisonment) and civil penalties ($250,000 or triple the value of the offense, whichever is greater, per offense) for those who purposely attempt to steal identities, subvert the security measures for the purpose of identity theft, or facilitate the reporting of false information on debtors for which adequate steps have not been taken to verify identity
* Mandatory FIPS-based security for the storage of personal information
* Withholding of derogatory credit information that is in dispute during the time that affected individuals are making a proper challenge to said derogatory information
Do all of that, and what you'll find is that this problem will vaporize overnight. It won't prevent other problems such as outright credit card theft (for which there are separate solutions anyway), but it will cut this problem off where it needs to be cut off.