The U.S. Federal Trade Commis-sion
just released grim statistics on 2004 complaints relating to
identity theft. An estimated 10 million Americans fell victim
to identity theft last year, or nearly one new American victim
every three seconds. Estimated losses are huge. A projected
$5 billion was lost last year by American consumers and nearly
$48 billion lost by businesses. The problem only continues to
grow. By now you may have read about the reported thefts of
financial information from ChoicePoint in
February and DSW Shoe Warehouse
and LexisNexis in early March. For consumer advocates, the ChoicePoint
and LexisNexis thefts are startling. ChoicePoint is a Georgia-based
spinoff of Equifax, one of the nation’s three largest
credit-reporting agencies.
According to press accounts, identity
thieves were allowed to open 50 bogus ChoicePoint accounts where
the thieves obtained social security numbers and credit reports
on more than 145,000 consumer victims. Included in this total
are 830 Wisconsinites. LexisNexis is considered a global leader
in legal and business data. According to the Washington Post,
identity thieves fraudulently obtained personal financial information
on 32,000 consumers in a series of incidents.
The ChoicePoint theft is notable
because the company was only planning to notify potential victims
by mail in California, since only California requires individual
notification when a theft has occurred. Fortunately, significant
pressure was brought on the company to notify all victims in
all states. Even so, the notifications only began in February,
despite the first thefts occurring in October of 2004. In fact,
there have been reports ChoicePoint’s first security breach
may have been as early as 2002.
Several members of Congress are
considering federal legislation requiring businesses to notify
consumers when an identity theft has occurred. Congressional
hearings have already begun and will likely continue through
April.
In my January column, I urged
you to order your free credit report from each of the three
major credit-reporting agencies beginning March 1. Federal law
allows you to order the credit report free once per year. I
ordered my credit report on March 1 and was astonished to find
a ChoicePoint credit inquiry on my report from late last fall.
I haven’t been one of the unlucky who have received a
letter from the company informing me that my personal information
may have been stolen, but it reminds me of the importance of
checking my credit report for errors and to determine if there
are indications I may have become a victim of identity theft.
If you haven’t already done so, help protect yourself
by ordering your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com
or by calling 877-322-8228 toll-free.
