OLYMPIA – A consumer who fears imminent identity theft, possibly because of a stolen wallet, would be able to freeze his credit under a measure proposed by Attorney General Rob McKenna.
A credit freeze prohibits credit from being issued in the consumer’s name and restricts access to credit histories.
“We believe that you should be able to freeze your credit before you become a victim, when you think you’re at risk of becoming a victim,” McKenna said Thursday.
Under current law, the concerned consumer can’t freeze his credit until a thief actually uses the information to commit a crime, McKenna said.
His proposal was offered a day after Providence Health System, a regional medical services provider, revealed a thief had walked off with the medical records of 365,000 patients – most in Oregon and Washington. Along with sensitive health information, the records contained names, addresses and Social Security numbers.
As a consequence, the attorney general’s three-person volunteer Consumer Protection Division in Vancouver was receiving about 45 phone calls per hour Thursday morning, McKenna said.
The security freeze bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, was the primary recommendation of McKenna’s identity theft summit in November. Both the Consumer Data Industry Association, representing credit reporting agencies, and a representative of Progressive Insurance testified in favor of the bill Thursday.
Another measure backed by McKenna would streamline communication between law enforcement and financial institutions by providing a safe method of sharing information. He also wants to make it easier for states to coordinate on identity theft cases.
Additional bills sponsored by Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, would increase the penalties for identity theft and require personal background checks for state employees handling personal information.
In reported identity theft cases, Washington ranks No. 7 in the nation, and second in overall fraud complaints, according to the Federal Trade Commission. With more than 5,800 fraud complaints in the state last year, it is an “insidious and ballooning problem,” Kohl-Welles said.
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