"Police Lax on Identity Theft, Leach Says" American Banker (09/14/00) P. 6; Blackwell, Rob Despite the passage last year of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which made it illegal to attempt to fool banks into releasing customers' private financial information, House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach says identity theft is on the upswing. Leach alleges that one of his staff members posed as an angry spouse and discovered 11 companies willing to reveal another customer's financial information for a fee. Leach also criticizes the low priority that law enforcement gives identity theft crimes, and consumer advocates accuse banks and credit bureaus for not protecting their financial data and for taking too long to remedy problems once fraud was established. The Identity Theft Protection Act, recently introduced in Congress, would mandate that creditors send confirmation of address changes to customers' old and new mailboxes; allow customers to get a free copy of their annual credit report; enable the Federal Trade Commission to fine creditors that do not take action on a fraud alert on a credit file; and prohibit credit bureaus from selling Social Security numbers. --- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Get email and like it! Upgrade your brain with informative newsletters from IDG. From hot products to high-speed LANs, Linux to Novell, we’ve got the email you want--FREE at Topica! http://click.topica.com/aaaaBHb1dhr0b1uN1Ic/PCWorld ------------------------------------------------------------ to unsubscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to subscribe send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] more good stuff at http://theMezz.com/alerts ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
