thedrifter
05-30-06, 07:32 PM
Sent to me from hubby...fontman
Ellie
N.C. tries to help vets at risk of identity theft
The Greenville News-Record
By Richard M. Barron
North Carolina's attorney general wants to make it easier for veterans
to protect themselves against potential identity theft.
Roy Cooper has asked the legislature to change state law to make it
free for veterans to place a security freeze on their credit reports, days
after the Department of Veterans
Affairs said millions of its records were stolen.
It now costs $10 per credit agency to put a freeze on reports, which
essentially places a padlock on an account. It costs another $10 to
release information from an account, which
could amount to $60 for accounts at all three credit bureaus.
"I don't think that the veterans should have to pay for any errors that
have occurred over which they have no control," said William F. Black,
a retired Greensboro banker who
served in the Navy during the Korean War era. "I think that's a penalty
that they should never have to pay. It's punitive and it's not their
fault."
The VA said Monday that the personal records of 26.5 million veterans
were stolen from the home of a VA employee. The 2000 Census said that
about 120,000 veterans live in the
Triad.
Rob Thompson, a consumer advocate with the N.C. Public Interest
Research Group, said the legislation has sponsors in the House and Senate and
could be voted on within
days.
North Carolina is one of 13 states that allow residents to freeze their
credit accounts at the three major credit bureaus, Thompson said.
Victims of identity theft have free use of the service, but a fee
applies to anybody who uses the service as prevention, such as when a wallet
is stolen.
Now that millions of veterans are vulnerable, Cooper said they should
all act quickly to freeze their credit.
Even $30 could be a hardship, though.
"Some of them are living on moderate incomes," said Black. "They've
given enough they don't have to have it piled on them."
Brian Sowers, a Marine Corps veteran in Greensboro whose son is a
Marine fighting in Iraq, said, "if a government entity screwed it up in the
first place, it would seem silly to pay to
kind of get out of jail."
Here's how freezing credit works: The owner of the accounts gets a
personal identity number that prohibits anybody but the owner from getting
access to credit accounts.
"It's like putting a virtual master lock on your identity," Thompson
said.
Thompson said that because the data could be lost for years, veterans
could rack up hundreds of dollars in fees if they have to pay every time
they lock and unlock accounts to
release information.
"It adds up," he said.
Still, Black and other veterans are uneasy about the situation.
"It concerns me that any private information is available to someone
that might be able to use it to their advantage to benefit illegally,"
Black said.
But Sowers said identity theft is always a worry and the latest threat
is just one of many.
"God only knows what's going on out there that we don't know about. It
obviously gets your attention that we're all vulnerable," he said, "but
I'm not going to start losing any more
sleep than I did last night over it."
-30-
Semper Fidelis,
Mark
Ellie
N.C. tries to help vets at risk of identity theft
The Greenville News-Record
By Richard M. Barron
North Carolina's attorney general wants to make it easier for veterans
to protect themselves against potential identity theft.
Roy Cooper has asked the legislature to change state law to make it
free for veterans to place a security freeze on their credit reports, days
after the Department of Veterans
Affairs said millions of its records were stolen.
It now costs $10 per credit agency to put a freeze on reports, which
essentially places a padlock on an account. It costs another $10 to
release information from an account, which
could amount to $60 for accounts at all three credit bureaus.
"I don't think that the veterans should have to pay for any errors that
have occurred over which they have no control," said William F. Black,
a retired Greensboro banker who
served in the Navy during the Korean War era. "I think that's a penalty
that they should never have to pay. It's punitive and it's not their
fault."
The VA said Monday that the personal records of 26.5 million veterans
were stolen from the home of a VA employee. The 2000 Census said that
about 120,000 veterans live in the
Triad.
Rob Thompson, a consumer advocate with the N.C. Public Interest
Research Group, said the legislation has sponsors in the House and Senate and
could be voted on within
days.
North Carolina is one of 13 states that allow residents to freeze their
credit accounts at the three major credit bureaus, Thompson said.
Victims of identity theft have free use of the service, but a fee
applies to anybody who uses the service as prevention, such as when a wallet
is stolen.
Now that millions of veterans are vulnerable, Cooper said they should
all act quickly to freeze their credit.
Even $30 could be a hardship, though.
"Some of them are living on moderate incomes," said Black. "They've
given enough they don't have to have it piled on them."
Brian Sowers, a Marine Corps veteran in Greensboro whose son is a
Marine fighting in Iraq, said, "if a government entity screwed it up in the
first place, it would seem silly to pay to
kind of get out of jail."
Here's how freezing credit works: The owner of the accounts gets a
personal identity number that prohibits anybody but the owner from getting
access to credit accounts.
"It's like putting a virtual master lock on your identity," Thompson
said.
Thompson said that because the data could be lost for years, veterans
could rack up hundreds of dollars in fees if they have to pay every time
they lock and unlock accounts to
release information.
"It adds up," he said.
Still, Black and other veterans are uneasy about the situation.
"It concerns me that any private information is available to someone
that might be able to use it to their advantage to benefit illegally,"
Black said.
But Sowers said identity theft is always a worry and the latest threat
is just one of many.
"God only knows what's going on out there that we don't know about. It
obviously gets your attention that we're all vulnerable," he said, "but
I'm not going to start losing any more
sleep than I did last night over it."
-30-
Semper Fidelis,
Mark