California law and ID theft

California residents have the ultimate weapon against identity theft — but few know it.

That may be changing, however, as a rash of security breaches putting personal information at risk has heightened public concern about privacy.

The weapon is a little-known California law — the only one of its kind in effect — allowing residents to freeze access to their credit reports. Such a step effectively prevents identity thieves from opening unauthorized credit accounts in the names of their victims.

Inquiries about the law, which took effect in 2003, have risen dramatically in the last few months, state officials said. And it has generated attention across the country as well: This year, 22 states considered legislation that allows consumers to freeze their credit reports.

"It's like the rise in sales in paper shredders," said state Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), who sponsored the original California bill. Once privacy concerns rise to a certain point, "suddenly, everyone has to have one."

A credit-report freeze costs $30 — $10 each to the three major national credit bureaus — and involves a certain amount of paperwork. But consumers planning to seek credit can, with a few days' notice and another $30, suspend the freeze whenever they wish.


Three other states have passed similar laws. A Louisiana law that is set to take effect July 1 will allow residents there to freeze access to their credit reports. In Texas and Vermont, freezes are available only to people who have been victimized by identity theft.

That was the original notion behind the California bill.

"It was to stop the victimization of people who had spent months getting their credit cleaned up after an identity theft attack," Bowen said, "only to have it happen again."

Non-victims were added to the bill, Bowen said, for special cases, such as when people want to freeze their elderly parents' credit reports to protect them from investment scams.

latimes