[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 223 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 223

           To prevent identity theft, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 28, 2003

Mrs. Feinstein (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Corzine, and Mr. Gregg) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
            Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
           To prevent identity theft, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Identity Theft Prevention Act''.

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 information are now 
        vulnerable to criminal interception and misuse;
            (2) in November 2002, Americans were alerted to the dangers 
        of identity theft when Federal prosecutors announced that 3 
        individuals had allegedly sold the credit and personal 
        information of 30,000 people, the largest single identity theft 
        case in United States history;
            (3) hundreds of thousands of Americans are victims of 
        identity theft each year, resulting in an annual cost to 
        industry of more than $3,500,000,000.
            (4) several indicators reveal that despite increased public 
        awareness of the crime, the number of incidents of identity 
        theft continues to rise;
            (5) in December 2001, the Federal Trade Commission received 
        an average of more than 3,000 identity theft calls per week, a 
        700 percent increase since the Identity Theft Data 
        Clearinghouse began operation in November 1999;
            (6) allegations of social security number fraud increased 
        by 500 percent between 1998 and 2001, from 11,000 to 65,000;
            (7) a national credit reporting agency reported that 
        consumer requests for fraud alerts increased by 53 percent 
        during fiscal year 2001;
            (8) identity theft violates the privacy of American 
        citizens and ruins their good names;
            (9) victims of identity theft may suffer restricted access 
        to credit and diminished employment opportunities, and may 
        spend years repairing the damage to credit histories caused by 
        identity theft;
            (10) businesses and government agencies that handle 
        sensitive personal information of consumers have a 
        responsibility to protect this information from identity 
        thieves; and
            (11) the private sector can better protect consumers by 
        implementing effective fraud alerts, affording greater consumer 
        access to credit reports, truncating of credit card numbers, 
        and establishing other prevention measures.

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.--'' before ``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 additional 
        card to the new address, notify the cardholder 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) Enforcement.--
                    (A) Federal trade commission.--Except as provided 
                in subparagraph (B), compliance with section 132(b) of 
                the Truth in Lending 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 shall be 
                        enforced under--
                                    (I) section 8 of the Federal 
                                Deposit Insurance Act, in the case of a 
                                card issuer that is--
                                            (aa) a national bank or a 
                                        Federal branch or Federal 
                                        agency of a foreign bank, by 
                                        the Office 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 commercial 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 
                                        Federal Reserve System;
                                            (cc) a bank insured by the 
                                        Federal Deposit Insurance 
                                        Corporation (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 National 
                                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.--
                            (i) In general.--For the purpose of the 
                        exercise 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 subsection) shall be deemed to be a violation of a requirement 
imposed under that Act.
                            (ii) Agency authority.--In addition 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, 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:
    ``(g) Fraud Alerts.--
            ``(1) Defined term.--In this subsection, the term `fraud 
        alert' means a statement in the file of a consumer that 
        notifies all prospective users of a consumer report made with 
        respect to that consumer that--
                    ``(A) the consumer's identity may have been used, 
                without the consumer's consent, to fraudulently obtain 
                goods or services in the consumer's name; and
                    ``(B) the consumer does not authorize the issuance 
                or extension of credit in the name of the consumer 
                unless the issuer of such credit--
                            ``(i) obtains express preauthorization from 
                        the consumer at a telephone number designated 
                        by the consumer; or
                            ``(ii) utilizes another reasonable means of 
                        communications to obtain the express 
                        preauthorization of the consumer.
            ``(2) Inclusion of fraud alert in consumer file.--Upon the 
        request of a consumer and upon receiving proper identification, 
        a consumer reporting agency shall include a fraud alert in the 
        file of that consumer.
            ``(3) Notice sent by consumer reporting agencies.--A 
        consumer reporting agency shall notify each person procuring 
        consumer credit information with respect to a consumer of the 
        existence of a fraud alert in the file of that consumer, 
        regardless of whether a full credit report, credit score, or 
        summary report is requested.
            ``(4) Procedures to receive fraud alerts.--Any person who 
        uses a consumer credit report in connection with a credit 
        transaction shall establish reasonable procedures to receive 
        fraud alerts transmitted by consumer reporting agencies.
            ``(5) Violations.--
                    ``(A) Consumer reporting agency.--Any consumer 
                reporting agency that fails to notify any user of a 
                consumer credit report of the existence of a fraud 
                alert in that report shall be in violation of this 
                section.
                    ``(B) User of a consumer report.--Any user of a 
                consumer report that fails to comply with 
                preauthorization procedures contained in a fraud alert 
                and issues or extends credit in the name of the 
                consumer to a person other than the consumer shall be 
                in violation of this section.
            ``(6) Exceptions.--
                    ``(A) Resellers.--
                            ``(i) In general.--The provisions of this 
                        subsection do not apply to a consumer reporting 
                        agency that acts as a reseller of information 
                        by assembling and merging information contained 
                        in the database of another consumer reporting 
                        agency or multiple consumer reporting agencies, 
                        and does not maintain a permanent database of 
                        the assembled or merged information from which 
                        new consumer reports are produced.
                            ``(ii) Limitation.--A reseller of assembled 
                        or merged information shall preserve any fraud 
                        alert placed on a consumer report by another 
                        consumer reporting agency.
                    ``(B) Exempt institutions.--The requirement under 
                this subsection to place a fraud alert in a consumer 
                file shall not apply to--
                            ``(i) a check services company, which 
                        issues authorizations for the purpose of 
                        approving or processing negotiable instruments, 
                        electronic funds transfers, or similar methods 
                        of payments; or
                            ``(ii) a demand deposit account information 
                        service company, which issues reports regarding 
                        account closures due to fraud, substantial 
                        overdrafts, ATM abuse, or similar negative 
                        information regarding a consumer, to inquiring 
                        banks or other financial institutions for use 
                        only in reviewing a consumer request for a 
                        demand deposit account at the inquiring bank or 
                        financial institution.''.

SEC. 4. TRUNCATION OF CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT NUMBERS.

    (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--
            (1) applies only to receipts that are electronically 
        printed; and
            (2) does not apply to transactions in which the sole means 
        of recording the cardholder's credit card account number is by 
        handwriting or by an imprint or copy of the credit card.
    (c) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect--
            (1) on the date that is 4 years after the date of enactment 
        of this Act, with respect to any cash register or other machine 
        or device that electronically prints receipts for credit card 
        transactions that is in use prior to the date of enactment of 
        this Act; and
            (2) on the date that is 18 months after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, with respect to any cash register or 
        other machine or device that electronically prints receipts for 
        credit card transactions that is first put into use on or after 
        the date of enactment of this Act.
    (d) Effect on State Law.--Nothing in this section 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 ANNUAL CREDIT REPORT.

    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 and 
without charge to the consumer, a consumer reporting agency shall make 
all the disclosures listed under section 609 once during any 12-month 
period.''.
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