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Last month, President Bush signed into law the Identity Theft Penalty Enforcement Act to help thwart the proliferation of identity theft crimes. He explained that last year alone nearly 10 million Americans had their identities stolen by criminals who robbed them and the nation’s businesses of nearly $50 billion through fraudulent transactions.
The new law promises to give teeth to existing laws, and dovetails with a law he signed into place last December, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which established a national system of fraud detection. Together, the two laws will help stave off would-be offenders by limiting the amount of monetary damage that identity thieves can do, and by allowing law enforcement agencies to impose much stiffer sanctions against the offenders. Until now, prosecutors around the country were frustrated because offenders usually spent no time in prison. This new law, however, establishes through the federal criminal court the offense of aggravated identity theft, an offense that will be added onto any other offenses perpetrated by the thief. For example, a felon convicted mail fraud will now face two charges--one for mail fraud and one for aggravated identity theft. The aggravated identity theft conviction carries with it a mandatory two-year prison term without probation. Charges for other felonies will be added onto this term. As a minimum, you can protect yourself by taking care to keep your personal data, especially your social security number, driver license number, account numbers and date of birth, from individuals who don’t need to have that information. I also recommend that you maintain maximum firewalls on your Internet-linked computers and have a paper shredder readily available for every unneeded or obsolete scrap of paper containing your personal information. You may download a free copy of the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines on preventing identity theft at www.PhillipsHQ.com. You may also benefit from an online subscription to Every Day Wealth via www.WealthLinks.BIZ. Such subscriptions will allow you to constantly monitor every aspect of your credit as you build and protect your family’s estate. Timothy Phillips is a mortgage banker and newspaper columnist. Homebuyers should always consult a professional for guidance specific to their situation.
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