Bill Introduced to Congress Would Allow ID Theft Restitution

verybadradio writes with an article at News.com about a bill introduced into Congress that would allow citizens who have been victimized by identity theft to seek repayment for the money and time spent repairing their credit history. The bill was introduced by Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. "Last year, 8.4 million Americans were victims of identity theft, and many were left with a bad credit report, which takes months or years to repair, the lawmakers said ... The bill would also eliminate a requirement that the loss resulting from damage to a victim's computer must exceed $5,000 for prosecution; make it a felony to use spyware or keyloggers to damage 10 or more computers; and expand the definition of cybercrime to include extortion schemes that threaten to damage or access confidential information on a computer."

Bill Number (110) S.2168

[megaditto]

Leahy did release the PR blurb on it, but the full text is kept secret of course (Dems want to get paid too)

Track the bill here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2168 [govtrack.us]

Re:Usually

[vertinox]

My usual reaction to identity theft laws is "Aren't existing fraud laws sufficient?"

No. But its not the identity thieves the laws should target (because its hard to track them down) but the credit companies and the companies that accept fraudulent credit.

Simply letting someone ruin another persons life with a birthday and a social security number is a horrid method for identification. It really needs to stop and there should be recourse for identity theft victims to go after credit companies who allowed such a transaction to happen.

Of course these credit companies are the ones trying to make a buck by offering "protection" services when they are the ones who let these transactions happen with little background checking.