How You Can Help
If you've been a victim of identity theft, please tell us your story.

Brief Summary
Information has become big business. Whether buying the week's groceries, ordering an airplane ticket or going to the doctor, companies are collecting information about their customers. Yet consumers have no control over what is done with that information. All too often, this information is used, traded, or sold, often without the knowledge of the consumer and almost always without their permission.

The negligent privacy practices of many companies allows this information into too many people's hands, making it easy for criminals to get data that they need to commit identity theft. For example, an employee at a software communications company accessed 30,000 consumers' credit reports and sold this data to people who then used it to make unauthorized charges on victims' credit cards, to use victims' identities on credit card and loan applications and more. Although the men are now standing trial, the $2.7 million in losses cannot be recovered and thousands of people are left picking up the pieces.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the nation, impacting over 7,000 Michiganders each year. Victims, who have had their bank accounts hijacked or thousands of dollars charged on unknown cell phone accounts, live through nightmares trying to clear their names. The companies whose practices permit identity theft frequently do very little to prevent this or to aid the victims.

PIRGIM is working to stem the growing tide of identity theft by protecting the privacy of Michigan consumers.

• Businesses and government agencies should be required to notify consumers of any breach in security that would compromise their personal information.
  
• Consumers should have the ability to freeze their credit report in order to stop lenders from issuing credit to identity thieves.
  
• Social Security numbers should not be used as identification numbers, but only for tax purposes, as originally designed.
  
• Banks, insurance companies, retailers, health care providers and other companies should obtain consumer permission before trading, selling or otherwise sharing personal information.
  
• Victims of identity theft should be able to report and prosecute the crime in their own city or county, not just where the crime occurred. Credit card and other companies should be required to hand over falsified applications and other evidence of identity theft.

What to do if you get a security breach notice.

Additional Resources
Top ten ways to avoid being a victim of identity theft.

If you're a victim of identity theft, check out these two web sites.
Identity Theft Victims Guide - created by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and CALPIRG.

ID Theft, If You're A Victim - created by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Report: Policing Privacy: Michigan Law Enforcement Officers On the Challenges of Tackling Identity Theft 2/4/04