Bill Would Help ID Theft Victims Restore Credit
The ability of identity theft victims to control who knows about their plight would be increased under a bill introduced in the Senate earlier this week by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
The Reclaim Your Identity Act (S-1742) would give them free access to information in the files of victimized businesses, such as catalogers, direct marketers and other credit grantors about the illegal use of their names, addresses and other personal information.
In addition, consumers would gain the ability to keep information about their victimization from being disclosed to third parties by credit reporting agencies as long as they did not knowingly benefit from the illegal use of their identity.
The measure would give identity theft victims the right to sue a credit reporting agency for including that information in a credit report provided to a third party. It also authorizes state authorities sue both the credit reporting agency disclosing that information and those responsible for stealing a person’s identity in federal court under federal racketeering laws.
And, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the legislation would amend the Internet False Identification Prevention Act by expanding the jurisdiction and membership of its coordinating committee. The committee’s new role would include seeing how the federal government “can improve the sharing of information on terrorists and terrorist activities as it relates to identity theft.”
When she introduced the bill, Cantwell said it was modeled after Washington state law because “it gives victims of identity theft the tools they need to restore their good credit rating.”
Existing federal law, she added, only addresses the crime of identity theft and provides for the prosecution of perpetrators. It does not offer “specific assistance to the victim [of identity theft] trying to recover their identity” because it forces them “to become their own sleuths to clear their names” often without the help or support of the businesses “that allowed the identity theft to take place.”
Many businesses, Cantwell noted, refuse to provide information to the victims of identity theft.
Currently there are 11 other identity theft related bills pending in Congress, five in the Senate and six in the House. So far none of the measures has made it out of committee to the floor of the House or Senate for a vote.
Nine of the pending bills would limit the disclosure and use of a person’s Social Security Number. One would prohibit the sale and marketing of personally identifiable information without permission while another seeks to ensure the privacy of personal data in electronic transactions, including fund transfers.
