LANSING - Spearheading a coalition of Democratic legislators, State Rep. Gino H. Polidori (D-Dearborn) today announced he will introduce tough new bills aimed at stopping identity theft, a growing crime that affected more than 650,000 people nationwide last year.
Rep. Polidori said the crux of his bills is to stop companies from freely and easily releasing consumers' private financial information.
"Financial institutions and other businesses are giving out our Social Security numbers like they were giving out candy at a carnival, and this puts thousands of consumers at risk," Rep. Polidori said. "Identity crimes are like mass-muggings that nobody notices until it's too late. One day, you wake up and you find your bank account's been emptied and someone has taken out a dozen credit cards in your name. We must stop these identity thieves and my bills will force companies to act in a responsible manner when they're handling our most personal financial information."
Rep. Polidori's five-bill package will force financial institutions and businesses to ask for and obtain explicit written permission from a consumer before any financial information can be released or sold. Federal law currently allows companies to sell such information after including a so-called "opt-out" clause, in fine print. This clause, Rep. Polidori said, puts the burden on the consumer to stop the company before it gives out financial information.
Rep. Polidori cited a growing list of recent identity crimes that have ruined the lives of many consumers. Thieves recently stole 30,000 Social Security numbers from Lexis-Nexis research, hacked credit card numbers from more than 100 DSW Shoe Warehouse stores and bought information on 145,000 people from the ChoicePoint data clearinghouse, including data on 2,319 Michigan residents, according to a Detroit News article in March.
The federal government reported more than 7,300 ID theft cases in Michigan.