CoPIRG's Rex Wilmouth

A Step Toward Preventing Identity Theft

You’ve seen the credit card ads. The voice of the slimy sounding guy doesn’t match the face of the little old lady, as he describes the motorcycle he has bought with her stolen personal information.

But the same credit card companies and banks that are running those ads are also responsible for allowing the personal information of millions of Americans to fall into the wrong hands.

Worse, we’re talking about social security numbers, bank account numbers and other data that firms have gathered, shared and sold without the consent of the consumer in the first place.

In Colorado, those types of losses are hitting home. Our state is now fifth in the nation for identity theft.

Up until this spring our lawmakers weren’t doing much to combat the problem.

But thanks in part to CoPIRG advocacy and the help of some of our friends in the Statehouse, Colorado is finally starting to take some strong steps forward to prevent identity theft.

On June 1, Gov. Owens signed a CoPIRG-backed law that gives consumers the power to freeze access to our credit reports for free—keeping thieves from taking out credit in our names.

That means that at any point, you can stop anyone from accessing your personal financial records. To access the records, if you’re applying for a new credit card or a loan, you simply have to temporarily lift the freeze for a $10 charge. The bill takes effect on July 1, 2006.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy this law has passed. But, while this is a step in the right direction, there’s still too little accountability among the corporations that sell and share our personal data, and, as consumers, we don’t have enough control over who gets to access our personal information.

That’s why we need more solutions here in Colorado. This fall, we’ll work to get legislation introduced that would give you the right to know when a security breach has put your personal information at risk of falling into the wrong hands.