Bad Credit Online Magazine - Daily News and Advice on Credit, Debt and Mortgage : Washington state enacts new laws to prevent identity theft

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July 27, 2005

Washington state enacts new laws to prevent identity theft

To help combat ever rising identity theft Washington legislature passed several bills that address "security breaches, access to credit reports, and Internet scams such as "phishing".
These bills will be in effect next week.

Govtech.com reports that Washington state attorney general, Mr. Rob McKenna takes identity theft crime very seriously.

Mr. McKenna said that he will dedicate very significant resources to fight identity theft and vigorously persecute offenders.

The newly enacted laws are SB6043, SB5418, SB5939 and HB1012, HB1888, HB1185. SB and HB stands for Senate Bill and House Bill respectively.

Here are the short descriptions of these bills:

SB6043 requires companies that own and license personal digital data to notify clients if a security breach occurs and this personal data is compromised.

SB5418 allows those whose identity had been stolen before to freeze their credit reports thus banning credit agencies from releasing information without explicit permission.

SB5939 amends Washington's identity theft statute to require identity theft victims to file police reports in order to seek further protection such as a credit freeze.

HB1012 is dealing with computer identity theft. It makes it illegal among other things for anyone to transmit or install software on someone else computer that modifies its security settings and collect personal identification information.

HB1888 "amends the state's spam statute to specifically prohibit "phishing" scams, in which identity thieves try to trick consumers out of personal information by sending e-mails that appear to come from a business, such as a bank or online auction site."

HB1185 bans the disclosure of personal wireless telephone numbers without obtaining an explicit consent in writing or electronically before publishing a wireless phone number in a directory.

 
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