The Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2001 seeks to make it harder to steal someone's identity. It would impose additional duties on credit issuers and credit bureaus to ensure the accuracy of information in credit applications. The bill also speeds up the paperwork process after an identity theft has been committed so that victims can more quickly reclaim their good credit.
"Having an imposter take over your identity is an egregious invasion of privacy," Grassley said. "What's worse, the damage to one's good credit may take months or even years to repair. This bill will help identity theft victims in restoring their good name and assist credit issuers in preventing identity fraud from occurring in the first place."
The FBI estimates 350,000 cases of identity theft occur each year. "With identity theft as one of the fastest growing crimes in the new economy, it's more important than ever for Americans to protect their personal information," Grassley said. "As people increasingly rely on credit cards for electronic commerce and daily business transactions, we need to lay down the law to stop unscrupulous individuals dead in their tracks."
?direct the Federal Trade Commission to require credit bureaus to investigate discrepancies between the address on a credit card application and the address in the bureaus' files;
?penalize credit card issuers who issue new cards without adequately verifying the identity of the applicant;
?require credit card issuers to notify customers when an address change or other activity on the account suggests possible fraud;
?prohibit all new credit-card machines from printing either the complete credit card number or the expiration date of the card on a receipt, also require existing machines to be retrofitted by 2006;
?streamline the reporting of fraud by identity theft victims so they can quickly restore their credit.
Last year, Grassley and Feinstein introduced a similar bill. The two senators also joined with Kyl in requesting the GAO to investigate problems associated with identity theft and ways to address the problems. Last month, Grassley asked the Social Security Administration to assess its own operations and programs in order to prevent the misuse of Social Security numbers.