Industry News

Over the past several years identify fraud has become a major issue for consumers. You read about it in the newspaper, you hear about it on television and your Senators debate and try to pass legislation to protect the consumer from becoming a victim of it. Even with all this national publicity, here is a response that no one wants to admit to:

As stated in the March 2002 issue of the Consumer Data Industry Association, CDIA Communicator, “Identify fraud is the most rapidly growing crime in the country and it will continue to be so because it’s not worth it for law enforcement to pursue and prosecute. It just doesn’t rank up there with murder, drugs and terrorism. Besides, the only financial losers are the credit card companies, and they can afford it. So let’s keep passing laws that appear to assist the consumer victim of identify fraud and hope nobody will realize we haven’t done anything to solve the problem and stop the criminals.”

We, the consumer, must take some responsibility for protecting ourselves from identity fraud. We must become more educated as to how identify fraud can happen. We must ask the Who, What, Where, Why and When before providing our personal information or credit card information to strangers or via the internet.

Senators Introduce Bill To Restrict Uses of SSNs

(ACB Communicator, June 2000)

Senators Judd Gregg, R-NH, and Christopher Dodd, D-CT, introduced Amy Boyer's Law (S.2554), a bill to "prohibit the display of an individual's Social Security Number for commercial purposes without the consent of the individual."

The bill makes exceptions for SSN uses under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Financial Services Modernization Act. However, it does ban the public display of an SSN without expressed electronic or written consent and the use of an SSN to contact an individual for illegal reasons. Those wishing to use an individual's number must let the person know how the number will be used and who will be using it.

"I'm encouraged that Senator Gregg is interested in achieving a balanced approach," said Stuart Pratt, ACB's vice president of Governments Relations. "We've had various member counsel review the bill, and in light of the exemptions for uses covered by the Financial Services Modernization Act and the FCRA, it is likely that a majority of our members' products would be preserved."

Gregg and Dodd apparently decided to introduce the bill after hearing stories of children who were harmed after they were tracked down with SSNs found on unregulated locator Web sites. The bill is named after Amy Boyer, a New Hampshire girl who was killed after an Internet stalker allegedly located her personal data from an online information vendor.

ACB will continue to work with Sen. Gregg's staff as the legislative process moves forward after the Memorial Day recess. Visit thomas.loc.gov to locate a copy of the bill.