Identity Theft Victim Says Proposed Bill Is A Good First Step

"One of the primary things that could be done to combat this is better information. Congress debating a bill in a live session will lead to more information about it. Education is one of best defenses against fraud occurring in the future," said Dan Long, vice president of associate resources and corporate counsel at Summit Electric Supply, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based company that had its identity stolen this year.

Someone pretending to be an individual from Summit is sending requests for proposals to computer resellers for hard disk drives and USB drives. In similar scams, the fraudsters count on resellers to provide credit lines and ship the product without getting paid. The fraudsters then disappear and resell the products, usually overseas.

The bill introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania), introduced the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007, which proposes adding protections for consumers who fall victim to identity theft to an existing bill focused on data privacy and security passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in May.

Provisions of the bill include giving victims of identity theft the right to seek restitution for time and money spent trying to restore their credit and expanding the jurisdiction of existing federal computer fraud statutes to include small businesses and corporations.

Long said the restitution proposal will help consumers more than corporations, who stand to lose a lot more as victims of identity theft. "Whatever time I spend on trying to restore my credit, while a pain in my neck, is a drop in the bucket compared to the good will and reputation damage that could result from this," Long said. "It's better than nothing, but it's just a drop compared to the damage from a corporate entity. I'm sure from an individual perspective, that calculates much differently."

Other elements in the proposed bill include making the use of spyware or keylogging software that damage 10 or more computers a felony, regardless of the resulting damage, and expanding the definition of cybercrime to include threatening to obtain or release information from a protected computer and demanding money in relationship to a protected computer to facilitate extortion.

The senators claim that there were 8.4 million identity theft victims in 2006. Long said he hadn't reviewed the bill, but he said more work needs to be done to track down and prosecute identity theft perpetrators in addition to adding penalties once they are caught.

"The difficulty in trying to track down individuals for this behavior is more of a problem than figurinig out what to do once you get them. Jurisdiction is a difficult issue," he said.

It's unknown how many resellers or distributors have lost money by the fraudsters pretending to be Summit Electric Supply. At least one solution provider recognized the RFP as possible fraud because the e-mail came from a Gmail account and requested overnight delivery to a state outside where it claimed to be operating from.

Summit Electiric Supply has passed on all information related to its business identity theft to federal authorities, Long said.

"We're really appreciative of everyone trying to help us out. It is frustrating. It is a difficult crime to investigate and prosecute. Hopefully, they will be able to make some progress," he said.