I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3053
To prevent identity theft, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 5, 2001
Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon (for herself, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mr.
MCGOVERN, Mr. LANTOS, Mrs. THURMAN, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. CAPUANO,
Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. BALDACCI, Mrs.
MALONEY of New York, Mr. BENTSEN, Mr. FROST, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr.
KILDEE, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. NEY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY,
Mr. LANGEVIN, and Mr. SHERMAN) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To prevent identity theft, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Identity Theft Preven-
tion Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that—
(1) the crime of identity theft has become one
of the major law enforcement challenges of the new
economy, as vast quantities of sensitive, personal in-
formation are now vulnerable to criminal intercep-
tion and misuse;
(2) a number of indicators reveal that, despite
increased public awareness of the crime, the inci-
dents of identity theft continue to rise;
(3) 1,000,000 consumers annually call the
Fraud Victim Assistance Department of one national
consumer reporting agency, a number that almost
doubled from 1997 to 2001;
(4) as of March 2001, the Federal Trade Com-
mission Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse was aver-
aging more than 2,000 call-ins a week, a four-fold
increase since the Clearinghouse began operation in
November 1999;
(5) allegations of identity theft reported to the
fraud hotline of the Social Security Administration
increased from 11,058 in fiscal year 1998 to 46,480
in fiscal year 2000;
(6) in its fiscal year 2000 annual report, the
Postal Inspection Service noted that identity theft is
a growing trend and the agency’s investigations of
such crimes has ‘‘increased by 67 percent since last
year’’;
(7) an integral part of many identity crimes in-
volves the interception of personal financial data or
the fraudulent acquisition of credit cards and other
financial products in another person’s name;
(8) identity theft is an act that violates the pri-
vacy of our citizens and ruins their good names, vic-
tims can suffer restricted access to credit and dimin-
ished employment opportunities, and may spend
years repairing damage to credit histories;
(9) the resources available to identity theft vic-
tims are inadequate, and both private sector and
Federal agencies should provide better and more
sympathetic assistance to such victims; and
(10) credit reporting agencies and issuers of
credit should have uniform reporting requirements
and effective fraud alerts to assist identity theft vic-
tims in repairing and protecting their credit.
SEC. 3. IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION.
(a) CHANGES OF ADDRESS.—
(1) DUTY
OF
ISSUERS
OF
CREDIT.—Section
132 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1642)
is amended—
(A) by inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—’’ be-
fore ‘‘No credit’’; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(b) CONFIRMATION OF CHANGES OF ADDRESS.—If
a card issuer receives a request for an additional credit
card with respect to an existing credit account not later
than 30 days after receiving notification of a change of
address for that account, the card issuer shall—
‘‘(1) not later than 5 days after sending the ad-
ditional card to the new address, notify the card-
holder of the request at both the new address and
the former address; and
‘‘(2) provide to the cardholder a means of
promptly reporting incorrect changes.’’.
(2) DUTY
OF
CONSUMER
REPORTING
AGEN-
CIES.—Section 605 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(15 U.S.C. 1681c) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘(g) NOTICE OF POTENTIAL FRAUD.—In any case
in which a person has requested a consumer report relat-
ing to a consumer, and the request includes an address
for the consumer that differs from the most recent address
in the file of the consumer, the consumer reporting agency
shall notify the requester of the discrepancy.’’.
(3) ENFORCEMENT.—
(A) FEDERAL
TRADE
COMMISSION.—Ex-
cept as provided in subparagraph (B), compli-
ance with section 132(b) of the Truth in Lend-
ing Act (as added by this subsection) shall be
enforced by the Federal Trade Commission in
the same manner and with the same power and
authority as the Commission has under the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to enforce
compliance with that Act.
(B) 
OTHER
AGENCIES
IN
CERTAIN
CASES.—
(i) IN
GENERAL.—Compliance with
section 132(b) of the Truth in Lending Act
(as added by this subsection) shall be en-
forced under—
(I) section 8 of the Federal De-
posit Insurance Act, in the case of a
card issuer that is—
(aa) a national bank or a
Federal branch or Federal agen-
cy of a foreign bank, by the Of-
fice of the Comptroller of the
Currency;
(bb) a member bank of the
Federal Reserve System (other
than a national bank), a branch
or agency of a foreign bank
(other than a Federal branch,
Federal agency, or insured State
branch of a foreign bank), a com-
mercial lending company owned
or controlled by a foreign bank,
or 
an 
organization 
operating
under section 25 or 25A of the
Federal Reserve Act, by the
Board of Governors of the Fed-
eral Reserve System;
(cc) a bank insured by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Cor-
poration (other than a member of
the Federal Reserve System or a
national nonmember bank) or an
insured State branch of a foreign
bank, by the Board of Directors
of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation; and
(dd) a savings association,
the deposits of which are insured
by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, by the Director of
the Office of Thrift Supervision;
and
(II) the Federal Credit Union
Act, by the Administrator of the Na-
tional Credit Union Administration in
the case of a card issuer that is a
Federal credit union, as defined in
that Act.
(C) VIOLATIONS TREATED AS VIOLATIONS
OF OTHER LAWS.—For the purpose of the exer-
cise by any agency referred to in this paragraph
of its powers under any Act referred to in this
paragraph, a violation of section 132(b) of the
Truth in Lending Act (as added by this sub-
section) shall be deemed to be a violation of a
requirement imposed under that Act. In addi-
tion to its powers under any provision of law
specifically referred to in subparagraph (A) or
(B), each of the agencies referred to in those
subparagraphs may exercise, for the purpose of
enforcing compliance with section 132(b) of the
Truth in Lending Act (as added by this sub-
section), any other authority conferred on such
agency by law.
(b) FRAUD ALERTS.—Section 605 of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681c) is amended by adding
at the end the following:
‘‘(A) the issuer of such credit first obtains
verbal authorization from the consumer at a
telephone number designated by the consumer;
or
‘‘(B) the issuer complies with such other
method of preauthorization by the consumer as
is mutually agreed upon by the consumer and
the consumer reporting agency.’’.
(c) RULES ON COMPLAINT REFERRAL, INVESTIGA-
TIONS, AND INQUIRIES.—Not later than 270 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Com-
mission (in this subsection referred to as the ‘‘Commis-
sion’’) shall promulgate rules in accordance with section
553 of title 5, United States Code—
(1) to require each consumer reporting agency
(as defined in section 603 of the Fair Credit Report-
ing Act) to investigate discrepancies between per-
sonal or identifying information contained in the file
maintained by the agency with respect to a con-
sumer and in the personal and identifying informa-
tion supplied to the agency by the user of the con-
sumer report;
(2) to develop procedures for referral of con-
sumer complaints about identity theft and fraud
alerts between and among the consumer reporting
agencies and the Commission; and
(3) to develop a model form and standard pro-
cedures to be used by consumers who are victims of
identity fraud for contacting and informing creditors
and consumer reporting agencies of the fraud.
SEC. 4. TRUNCATION OF CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT NUM-
BERS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in this section,
no person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, or
limited liability company that accepts credit cards for the
transaction of business shall print more than the last 5
digits of the credit card account number or the expiration
date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder.
(b) LIMITATION.—This section applies only to re-
ceipts that are electronically printed, and does not apply
to transactions in which the sole means of recording the
person’s credit card account number is by handwriting or
by an imprint or copy of the credit card.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall become ef-
fective on—
(1) January 1, 2006, with respect to any cash
register or other machine or device that electroni-
cally prints receipts for credit card transactions that
is in use before January 1, 2003; and
(2) January 1, 2003, with respect to any cash
register or other machine or device that electroni-
cally prints receipts for credit card transactions that
is first put into use on or after January 1, 2003.
(d) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Nothing in this sec-
tion prevents a State from imposing requirements that are
the same or substantially similar to the requirements of
this section at any time before the effective date of this
section.
SEC. 5. FREE REPORTS ANNUALLY.
Section 612(c) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15
U.S.C. 1681j(c)) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(c) FREE ANNUAL DISCLOSURE.—Upon the request
of the consumer, a consumer reporting agency shall make
all disclosures pursuant to section 609 once during any
12-month period without charge to the consumer.’’.
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