What's New
The state legislature has passed some good legislation on identity theft in previous sessions, including a bill in the 80th Legislature which gave consumers the right to freeze their consumer report and also set limits on how much firms can charge to freeze and unfreeze a report. However, much work remains to be done if the state is to effectively protect its citizens from this crime. As the techniques used by identity thieves become increasingly sophisticated and as our society becomes more connected via the Internet, it is critical that our elected leaders remain vigilant and pass much-needed legislation to combat this crime. TexPIRG has long been a leader in pushing legislation to address identity theft and we will keep up the pressure in future legislative sessions.
How You Can Help
Please take a moment to call your representative to tell them to pass stronger laws that protect identity theft without preventing states from passing even stronger protections.
Overview
Just since February 2005, Choicepoint, Bank of America, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Cardsystems, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other companies and agencies have disclosed that they’ve lost the confidential financial information of over 90 million Americans. We learned about these security breaches only due to a pioneering California notice breach law that companies complied with nationwide, while other states began to pass their own laws.
Easy availability of confidential financial information, coupled with sloppy credit-granting practices by creditors and credit bureaus, makes it easy for identity thieves to open accounts in our name.
Security freezes give consumers real control over access to their credit report. A freeze prevents access to your credit report to new creditors. This closes the loophole that identity thieves have exploited, since most businesses will not issue new credit or loans to people without first reviewing their credit reports. California enacted the first freeze law in 2001, and 24 states including Texas have followed with their own laws.
Now, the banks and credit card companies are pressuring Congress to override the strongest security freeze and breach notice laws, as well as dozens of other state identity theft reforms, with a weak federal law that won’t stop identity theft and won’t allow the states to innovate.
Under the flawed HR 3997, only previous identity theft victims would be able to use security freezes. That’s like saying only victims of car crashes could wear seat belts. And, the bill would allow companies that lost confidential information to decide whether it was important to tell us.
To learn more about state PIRG identity theft solutions and to view the model law, visit http://www.pirg.org/consumer/credit.
