Attorney General Stumbo Supports Identity Theft Legislation

FRANKFORT, KY (February 3, 2006) – Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced today that Rep. Robin Webb will sponsor legislation that provides protections to Kentucky consumers against the rapidly growing crime of identity theft.

“National reports indicate that ID theft is the fastest growing financial crime in America,” said Attorney General Greg Stumbo. “There’s credit card fraud, bank fraud, loan fraud, benefits fraud, phone and utilities fraud…the list goes on. The time for Kentucky to do something about it is now.”

Kentucky passed a law criminalizing identity theft in 2000 but in the wake of recent thefts of corporate and government databases containing sensitive personal information of thousands of consumers, additional legal protections are necessary. Since the ChoicePoint security breach was made public a year ago, more than 100 such events have been documented involving the breach of over 52 million consumers’ personal data files.

Last summer the Attorney General gathered a task force made up of his Office of Consumer Protection, federal, state and local law enforcement officials, representatives from the courts, and other state and federal agencies, to deal with this urgent problem affecting the Commonwealth. Representatives from the banking, insurance, data collection and credit reporting industries were also included.

Using components of legislation passed in Texas, California, Louisiana and North Carolina as a guide, Attorney General Stumbo drafted legislation to present to this session of the general assembly. The task force was charged with reviewing the legislation, fine-tuning it and propelling it into an ID Theft Protection Act that legislators will rally behind.

This legislation does several things.

It protects social security numbers by restricting businesses and government’sbusiness’ ability to make such information public. Social security numbers are the key to everyone’s financial accounts.

It allows consumers to place security freezes on their credit reports. This means that a credit bureau is prohibited from releasing the credit report to a potential creditor without a consumer’s express authorization.

It requires businesses and government agencies to take precautions when disposing of private information.

Next, it addresses the problems faced when companies like ChoicePoint have a security breach and information is stolen.

Businesses and government agencies that own or license data with personal information will be required to immediately notify consumers of a breach so they can take immediate action to protect themselves.

The law also addresses the problem some consumers have of getting a police report when victimized by identity theft.

Local police are sometimes reluctant to take a report, especially when the perpetrator is in another state or a foreign country. They know it will be a difficult case to close.

Under this bill, the Kentucky State Police or the local police with jurisdiction over the crime, or where the victim lives, must take the report and give a copy to the victim.

The legislation also addresses the problem of mistaken identity that may arise when a crime is committed in the victim’s name. It provides a quick procedure to get a court order declaring that the person is a victim of identity theft.

It requires law enforcement officials to undergo specialized training so that they may better understand the crime of ID theft and how to investigate it.

It provides that consumers who are harmed by violations of this law may file a private lawsuit against the individual or company that violated the act and recover damages and attorneys fees.

Finally, the legislation will require state government agencies to reduce the collection, use and dissemination of personal information and to discontinue collecting the information when it’s not necessary.

“We need strong laws to allow consumers to protect themselves and require businesses possessing consumers’ information to act responsibly,” said Rep. Robin Webb. “This legislation does that. It addresses some of the root causes of identity theft and provides victims with the tools they need to restore their good name.”