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Identity Theft Law Can Protect Future Credit

With the amount of information available on the internet increasing daily, the number of persons using that information to commit crimes is also increasing. However, where and how a person obtains unauthorized information makes no difference in the federal identity theft law.

It was not until 1998 that the identity theft law made it a federal crime to use another person’s personal information to open accounts, change addresses or some other way use someone else’s identity for any unauthorized use. The increase in the number of personal information thefts prompted the government to put the Federal Trade Commission in charge of tracking and pursuing this type theft under identity theft law.

However, when the law was first enacted there were very few investigations conducted, due to the lack of qualified persons trained to conduct this type of investigation. This made those few cases that were brought relatively easy to solve. As more people became aware of the identity theft law, however, more began filing complaints with an average of 10 million people per year claiming to be the target of identity theft.

Law Prompts Need For Fraud Alerts

Under the identity theft law, the three major credit reporting agencies are now required to offer free credit reports, as well as place fraud alerts on a person’s credit report when requested by the subject of the report. A temporary alert lasting 90 days can be requested if you believe fraud has been committed against you, or may be committed against you. All you need do is notify one of the three agencies and they are required by the identity theft law to notify the other two.

You can also place a long-term fraud alert on your credit report that will last for seven years. When you have a fraud alert on your account, any request for credit must be verified by the credit company by contacting you to verify the request. Whenever you place a fraud alert on your account, according to the identity theft law your personal contact information must be up to date. To remove an alert a special process must be implemented through the credit reporting agencies.

Tougher penalties were included in the identity theft law in 2004 with an additional two years in jail mandated for those committing identity theft and an additional five years in prison for those committing identity theft to help with terrorism funding. The extra jail time is viewed as a deterrent in the identity theft law.