FTC to poll identity theft victims
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Wednesday that it is planning to survey recent identity theft victims in hopes of learning how to improve enforcement efforts and consumer education.The survey will poll ID theft victims who contacted the FTC between Jan. 1 and May 30. It will seek to learn how successful the individuals were in using legal remedies available to them under federal law to respond to the incident.
That includes placing fraud alerts on their credit files, blocking certain information on their credit reports and receiving free copies of the reports.
The study was recommended in report published last year by the President's Identity Theft Task Force.
Other recommendations included limiting the use by federal agencies of Social Security numbers as identifiers, passing a national breach notification law and launching a federal ID theft awareness campaign.
More than eight million Americans fall victim to ID theft each year, according to a 2007 Javelin Strategy & Research study.
