SENATOR BRUNO UNVEILS IDENTITY THEFT LEGISLATION

Senator Bruno announced that he and his Senate colleagues have received more than 300,000 Do Not Call Registry responses from New Yorkers.

Senate Pursues Privacy Invasion Issues, Cites Massive Response To Do Not Call Law

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Senator Roy M. Goodman (R-L, Manhattan) today announced that the State Senate will again pass legislation to target the crime of identity theft, citing the increasing number of crimes being committed and people being victimized, along with the growing demands of New Yorkers who want their privacy protected.

"Over two years ago we formed a Majority Task Force whose purpose was to recommend and help enact laws to address the growing problem of identity theft and privacy invasion," Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said. "The Task Force held hearings across the state and made over 50 recommendations, 19 of which were passed by the Senate last year and three of which were signed into law."

"The most successful of these proposals was the state's 'Do Not Call' registry that will help stem the flow of unwanted and nuisance telemarketing phone calls, a law that will take effect next week," Senator Bruno said. "However, the biggest privacy invasion issue that still must be addressed is the crime of identity theft. The bill we will adopt will not only increase penalties, but help police and prosecutors apprehend identity theft offenders before people are victimized."

"Identity theft has been called the number one financial and consumer crime of the information age with reports of 2,000 such thefts per week," said Senator Goodman, sponsor of the identity theft legislation (S.694A). "It is a growing problem due to the availability of information in computer databases, increased use of credit, debit and ATM cards, and the growth of commerce over the Internet. This bill clearly defines the crime and establishes strong penalties in law to punish perpetrators. To date, 42 other states have enacted identity theft laws and I hope New York will become the 43rd."

Also at the news conference, Senator Bruno displayed some of the more than 300,000 responses Senators received from New Yorkers who want their name and phone included on the new Do Not Call Registry to significantly reduce the number of telemarketing calls they receive. The Do Not Call Law, which was sponsored by Senator Charles Fuschillo (R-C, Merrick), was a major recommendation of the Senate Majority Task Force on Privacy Invasion.
"In all my years in the Legislature I have never seen such an incredible response to an issue," Senator Bruno said. "Our members reached out to their constituents, the Consumer Protection Board has done an outreach program and together we've registered more than a million responses and they are still coming in every day."

"The issue of telemarketing calls clearly struck a nerve with New Yorkers who are tired of having their lives interrupted and their privacy disturbed by annoying sales phone calls," Senator Fuschillo said. "Starting this spring, people who signed up for the Do Not Call Registry will see a marked reduction in the number of telemarketing calls they receive."

The law requires telemarketers to purchase the registry and purge their calling lists of all the names included on the registry. Telemarketers are subject to strict financial penalties if they violate the law.

Senator Bruno said that the identity theft bill unveiled at the news conference, will be acted on by the Senate next week.

"Current laws do not do enough to protect New York's consumers, businesses, banks, or credit card companies," Senator Bruno said. "This bill recognizes the serious nature of the crime and enables law enforcement to apprehend criminals who possess personal information with the intent to commit fraud through identity theft. This would enable law enforcement to apprehend criminals before consumers or financial institutions are victimized."

"In addition to the criminal penalties, this bill would enable identity theft victims to receive restitution, including covering the costs of restoring their credit record," Senator Goodman said.

At the news conference Amy Nemith of Troy discussed her experience as a victim of identity theft. A co-worker befriended her and obtained her personal information, which he then used to apply for credit accounts and charge thousands of dollars of goods over the Internet. The perpetrator plead guilty to possession of a forged instrument and was sentenced to five months in jail and five years probation.

The legislation would establish three felony levels of identity theft, based on the dollar amount of benefit fraudulently obtained by the criminal ($500, $2,000 and $5,000) or the number of victims (5, 10 and 25). The bill includes a rebuttable presumption so that a person who possesses personal identifying information of five or more people, including such things as a social security number, bank account numbers, credit card numbers or other personal identifying information which could be used to access a person's financial resources or medical information, is presumed to possess the information with the intent to commit fraud.

"AARP commends Senator Bruno and the State Senate for passing AARP's legislative priorities to protect New Yorkers from fraudulent telemarketers and from receiving unsolicited phone calls," said Hyman Kuritz, Chairman of AARP's New York State Legislative Committee. "AARP looks forward to working with the Legislature on providing more protections to safeguard a consumers identity and other personal information."

Identity theft rings have proliferated in large cities, including New York. A convicted leader of an identity theft ring in New York City, who stole more than $10 million in 1995 and 1996, found victims in phone books.

In another case, a couple used "Who's Who of America" to find a victim's place of birth. They then wrote to the courthouse to obtain a duplicate birth certificate and applied for a driver's license in the victim's name to get all the identifiable information they needed to obtain goods in that person's name.

Just recently, in Brooklyn, a convicted swindler used a copy of Forbes "400 Richest People in America" and a computer to breach banking, brokerage and credit card information from a list of celebrities and was caught. The scam was so sophisticated that the thief was able to avoid detection for six months.

The Federal Trade Commission began gathering data on identity theft incidents through their consumer hotline in November of 1999 through October of 2000, and report over 40,000 contacts from consumers, of which 64% were complaints. Just over a thousand of those inquiries were from consumers in New York City, 77% of which were complaints.

The cost of identity theft is monumental to victims, to financial institutions and to taxpayers. Those costs have skyrocketed to more than $2 billion a year. This "victimless" crime cost consumers roughly $442 million in 1995, and escalated to $745 million in 1997.

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