United States Federal Laws for Identity Theft

Identity theft is a very serious crime that affects many families every year. This includes using another person's identification in order to reap some sort of benefit while the victim is left with debt, injured credit or both. A lot of government attention has been turned toward this growing problem in order to try to catch identity thieves and restore credit to people unfortunate enough to have their identities stolen.

Identification

Identity theft is any case where a criminal has used a person's personal identification information without that person's consent. Usually, identity thieves do this by finding a person's social security number in an online form. If the identity thief knows the person's other general contact information as well, he can use the information to take out a loan. If this happens, the identity thief makes off with the money and the victim is left with ruined credit. Federal laws were drafted in order to combat this shady activity.

History

The False Identification Crime Control Act was passed in 1982. This law makes it illegal for anyone to transfer documents or create their own documents for personal identification that they know are either fake or stolen. This also makes it illegal for anyone to own the machinery for printing their own fake personal identification documents. However, this law did not make it possible to prosecute anyone transferring information online or over the phone to commit identity theft.

Federal Crime

In 1998, the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act made identity theft a federal crime. These laws made it illegal for anyone to use another person's "means of identification," which includes a wide range of identifiers. Some of the identifiers include a person's social security number, name, birthday, license number, taxpayer ID number, alien registration number or passport number. This law applies to the transfer of identification information through physical documents as well as over the Internet or phone.

Restoration

In December of 2003, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was passed. This made it possible for people who had their identities stolen to talk to credit bureaus about having their credit restored. The new laws implemented as a result of this legislation also help to avoid identity theft from happening again. The laws allow people to put alerts on their credit file if they suspect the security of their identity information may have been compromised recently, and military officials are able to alert credit bureaus if they are leaving for active duty.

Prevention/Solution

While many new laws have been passed to make sure that the problem of identity theft is being addressed, there is no absolute certainty your credit will be restored if you fall victim to identity theft. Be careful about divulging your social security number and other valuable identity information. If you are about to apply for a job, research the company to make sure they are legitimate before giving them your social security number. Contact the FTC if you feel that you may have been tricked into giving away your identification information.

Resources

• Federal Trade Commission Website on Identity Theft