LANSING – State Representative Andy Coulouris (D-Saginaw) today announced that legislation to fight identity theft by allowing residents to place a security freeze on their credit report passed the Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday. The legislation also prohibits a credit-reporting agency from releasing or using information without proper authorization.
The Saginaw metropolitan area ranked 94th in the nation for consumer fraud complaints in 2006, according to a report based on information collected by Consumer Sentinel, the Federal Trade Commission's consumer fraud and identity theft complaint database.
"Identity theft is an epidemic in this country, and we need to provide Michigan consumers with all the tools they need to protect their most sensitive personal information," said Coulouris, who is chair of the Banking and Financial Services Committee. "Allowing consumers to freeze their accounts is an important step in the fight against this rampant crime. I'm proud that my colleagues and I were able to quickly get this bill through the channels for the House vote."
The proposal features security provisions including a personal identification number (PIN) that gives users easy access to their personal and confidential credit information.
According to the IdentityTheftResourceCenter, 10 million people are harmed by identity theft each year. That means about 19 individuals become identity theft victims every minute. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, identity theft has surpassed drug trafficking as the No. 1 crime in the nation and costs businesses and consumers billions of dollars each year.
The bill combats this crime by locking down unsecured access to consumers' credit information, limiting security breaches. The bill lets consumers freeze all accounts, limiting access to those records through the sole use of the consumers' PIN. The freeze will remain in effect on all accounts through the three official credit reporting agencies until the consumer chooses to lift it.
"This plan is about empowering consumers," Coulouris said. "It can take minutes for an identity thief to steal account numbers and passwords — and years for a consumer to undo the damage."