Legislation Introduced in Connecticut to Safeguard Personal Identity, Create Privacy Protection Law

As part of a comprehensive effort to prevent identity theft, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell today submitted testimony to the General Assembly's General Law Committee regarding her legislative proposal that creates a new privacy protection statute while strengthening criminal provisions and enforcement associated with identity theft.

"Each year in Connecticut, more than 2000 individuals' identities are stolen," Governor Rell said. "We need to better protect individuals while putting in place more severe penalties for those who commit these devastating crimes. My proposal helps those who have been personally impacted by this crime -- the victims -- get back what was stolen from them: their good name and their money."

The Governor's bill:

• Upgrades the crime of criminal impersonation from a class B misdemeanor to a class A misdemeanor (term of imprisonment up to one year, fine up to $2,000);
• Creates a new criminal statute making it a crime to possess access devices, document-making equipment and authentication implements for the purpose of obtaining, tampering with, or using the personal identifying information of another person;
• Requires the court to issue an order of restitution against the guilty party to allow full compensation for the victims;
• Extends the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit pursuant to this section from two years to three;
• Creates a new privacy protection statute that will prevent the stealing and misuse of personal identifying information, including social security numbers, by businesses; and
• Amends the asset forfeiture statute to provide for forfeiture of any money, proceeds, property or goods obtained directly or indirectly from a violation of identity theft statutes.

Two-thirds of identity theft victims find out their personal information has been used to open a new credit line in their name, while the remaining third find that new cable or utility service has been launched with their identifying information, or that thieves made charges to their existing credit card accounts. The average value of fraudulent charges made in a victim's name was more than $87,000 in 2006, up 78 percent from 2004. Victims spend on average more than 100 hours and $1,600 dollars out-of-pocket to repair their good name.

There are some everyday things that consumers can do to protect themselves:

• Shred your important documents that contain personal identifiers like address, dates of birth, age, account number
• Even shred documents like utility bills and motor vehicle information.
• If you don't have a shredding machine, rip and tear these documents up before you throw them away.
• Bring your mail to the post office or drop it in an official blue mailbox -- don't leave your outgoing mail in your mail box with the flag up.
• Do annual credit checks. The one and only free site for your credit reports is www.annualcreditreport.com or toll-free at 1-877-322-8228.
• Always protect your social security number and your credit cards -- be careful how, why and to whom you disclose this information.

Beyond properly disposing of personal information, more safeguarding tips can be found on Department of Consumer Protection's web site at www.ct.gov/dcp.