What's New

As of July 1st, 2006 anyone in Colorado can freeze ID thieves out of their credit report. These protections are from a new law, that CoPIRG fought hard for. Under the new law, you may obtain a security freeze on your credit report, to protect your privacy and ensure that credit is not granted in your name without your knowledge. Learn how to place a security freeze.

Overview

If a stranger on the street asked you to let them see your credit card or social security card, you'd probably say no, correct? Well right now thieves in Colorado are asking financial institutions for access to your credit report to steal identities and they are getting it. As a result, identity theft is a growing crisis in Colorado. In 2004, Colorado was ranked 5th for the number of identity theft victims per capita, which placed identity theft as the number one consumer crime in Colorado. According to the Attorney General's Office, this is up from the eleventh highest in 2002. During the past three years, the number of Colorado consumers who have filed identity theft complaints with the Federal trade Commission (FTC) has increased by more than 65 percent. Victims of identity theft spend an average of 600 hours over two to four years, and $1400 dollars in out-of-pocket expenses to clear their names.

Your personal information is a valuable commodity. Social security numbers, medical records, and information on your buying patterns are often bought, sold, or traded among banks, credit card companies, supermarkets and insurance companies. Large mega-corporate mergers have created an atmosphere in which personal information is bought and sold for the purposes of direct marketing and economic gain. Corporations do not adequately safeguard consumers' private financial information, making it relatively easy for thieves to steal this data and use it to take out new credit or to rack up charges on existing accounts.

Identity theft is a relatively low risk crime with a potentially large payoff for the thief. Victims often are unaware of the crime months after it has occurred, making it difficult for law enforcement to find the perpetrator. When a thief bought a house boat in Zachery Freisen's name, his financial record was ruined. Zach was only fourteen years old when his identity was stolen and he did not find out until he went to apply for a part-time job at the local radio shack at the age of sixteen. It took Zach more than 200 hours with the help of an attorney over the course of two years to clear his credit report and he continues to see false data on his credit report.

Credit bureaus collect and compile information about consumer creditworthiness from banks and other creditors and from public record sources such as lawsuits, bankruptcy filings, tax liens and legal judgments. The three major credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union - maintain files on nearly 90 percent of all American adults. Those files are routinely sold to credit grantors, landlords, employers, insurance companies, and many others interested in the credit record of a consumer, often without the consumer's knowledge or permission. With all of this information being sold law enforcement has not been able to keep up. The federal law is riddled with loopholes and the state law has not kept pace with this skyrocketing problem. It is up to us to deal with this growing crisis.