Modern technology has made vast amounts of personal information obtainable at the click of a keyboard, leaving our personal information vulnerable to interception and misuse. Identity theft occurs when one person uses another person's Social Security number, birth date, driver's license number, or other identifying information to obtain credit cards, car loans, phone plans or other services in the victim's name. An identity is stolen every 60 seconds. Identity theft, unlike other crimes, is an ongoing crime that can last for years. This hearing will explore how individuals can better protect themselves from fraud, and how the local and Federal governments can help put the clamps on identity theft.
Individuals also can take preventive steps to protect themselves from identity thieves.
There are very specific things the Federal government can do to aid in the fight against identity theft. First, we can cut down on the widespread traffic of the Social Security number. Social Security numbers are the prime tool used by identity thieves to capture victims' personal information and to set-up fraudulent credit card accounts. This is simply wrong. I have introduced the Social Security Number Protection Act, which is endorsed by the Clinton-Gore Administration.