Identity Theft Hits The Brakes In Nevada - New Credit Freeze Law

Un-persuaded by federal legislators to go along withResidents. What the Nevada credit freeze means is
some form of federally mandated "universal creditthat residents' confidential credit file information cannot
freeze right" after you identity has been stolen,be given out to any firm, and new credit cannot be
Nevada legislators are pushing back at identity theftissued unless and until the resident provides a written
and credit card fraud.authority to release the information on a 1-time basis to
What Nevada law makers can see is plain and simple.an identified enquiring firm.
Billions of dollars of identity fraud debts are createdCriminals Blocked From Credit Applications Posing As
each year. Some of it takes the form of credit cardYou. In taking this step, which a likely 20% of Nevada's
fraud after cars or hand bags are stolen, or even USresidents will do, no longer will criminals be able to
mail is intercepted by the more aggressive andphony-up a credit application, posing as you, then
entrepreneurial identity theft gangs. Almost 90% ofreceive a new card to be max-ed out on a spending
identity theft goes undetected and un-prosecuted duebinge. Until the credit freeze law came into force, the
to the camouflage provided to the Bad Guys.situation was "open running room" for criminals and
Avoiding Other States' Mistakes. Nevada has not fallenessentially zero protection for consumers. The typical
in the trap like other states. Legislative stupidity knowsconclusion on an identity theft and credit card fraud
no limits when law makers are uninformed or impulsive.scam was a resident in, say, Reno or Las Vegas
Take for instance states like Florida compelling realopening up her mail only to discover that in the
estate appraiser to publish the social security numbersprevious month some new and unknown credit card
of clients. Or, how about California's version of "privacyhad been issued "in their name"...thousands of dollars of
protection" uncovered to be actually the selling ofgear had been purchased...and now she was holding
millions of Californians' birth records to private onlinethe bill....her credit standing ruined...and now was even
direct marketing firms for fees. Paid to Californians?responsible for a portion of the purchases.
Heck no. Instead, State coffers get the rental fees."Whaaaa....@*&%" is only part of the typical
Meanwhile citizens are placed in a vulnerable positionresponse once someone realizes what's happened.
with key personal data hanging-out in unregulatedWho Opposes The Nevada Credit Freeze Law?
unsupervised areas.Criminals naturally want a stupid, poorly monitored
How Nevada's Credit Freeze Law Protects Residents.easy-to-break-in system, so if they had a vote, they'd
Nevada residents don't need a PhD degree tovote "no" to any electronic obstacle. However, the
understand their risks after reading recent accountsnext level of "legitimate business" opposition to credit
where over 40 million MasterCard and Visa cardfreeze comes from the credit bureaus and many of
holder records were accessed by unauthorizedtheir customers, which include banks, insurers,
persons. Or how about the recent case where a highemployers, department stores, hardware and big box
level Washington DC Department of Defense casuallyretailers, even some sporting goods stores.
removed vital personal records for millions of vets?What's going on? Answer is imbedded in the money
These sort of "system break downs" are only thetrail. Each of the more than 150 million individual credit
public tip of the iceberg to the underlying problem.history records is a form of intellectual property for the
Estimates vary but realistically over 30 millioncredit bureau. They "sell" consumers' file information to
Americans have been hit by identity theft in somemajor credit card issuers. Both business groups have
form since 2000.an interest to control files. Neither group wants
Nevada's credit freeze law basically says "no more"...consumers to be able to control the file records. This
no mas! Residents can provide a written notice to thewould be like some peon dictating the timing and size
Big Three credit bureaus...Equifax, TransUnion andof the credit bureaus' revenue, which is unpalatable.
Experian...with Nevada State backing and receive aSimilarly, credit card issuers oppose any restriction to
100% guaranteed lock-down of individual credit historyfree-and-easy credit...since credit ease is the same
records.thing as an inducement to buy gear.
What The Nevada Credit Freeze Means To