LANSING – State Representative Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland) today voted in support of a plan to fight identity theft by allowing residents to place a security freeze on their credit report. The plan also prohibits a credit-reporting agency from releasing or using information without proper authorization.
"As identity theft grows, we must ensure that our laws are keeping pace," said LeBlanc, a reserve police officer with the Canton Police Department. "Identity theft is growing at an alarming pace. This plan gives our consumers the tools they need to keep their personal financial information in a lockbox."
The legislation features security provisions including a personal identification number (PIN) that gives users easy access to their personal and confidential credit information.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 10 million people are harmed by identity theft each year. That means about 19 individuals become identity theft victims every minute. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, identity theft has passed drug trafficking as the No. 1 crime in the nation and costs businesses and consumers billions of dollars each year.
The bill combats this crime by locking down unsecured access to consumers' credit information, limiting security breaches. The bill lets consumers freeze all accounts, limiting access to those records through the sole use of the consumers' PIN. The freeze will remain in effect on all accounts through the three official credit reporting agencies until the consumer chooses to lift it.
"Identity theft can happen in seconds, but it can take years to recover when your personal information has been stolen," LeBlanc said. "This plan will help our residents maintain control of their personal information, and will protect that information from being compromised by identity thieves. This is the right thing to do for our consumers."