According to WMGT.com, for the last three years, most of the businesses that rely on quick credit have fought a Georgia bill that would allow consumers to put a credit freeze on their credit account information to prevent identity theft. However, the bill is now gaining momentum.

Under pressure to fight identity theft, lawmakers in 39 other states have adopted credit freeze legislation that allows residents to stop credit reporting agencies from releasing their information without written permission. It is likely that Georgia will join that list this year.

Three competing proposals are on the table, and consumer rights groups are hopeful one will survive. The most popular plan is a GOP measure that charges $10 — or a total of $30 for all three credit reporting agencies — that was backed by Republican state Representative Calvin Hill, vice-chair of the House banking committee. However, the measure was put on hold earlier this year, disappointing consumer groups that had lobbied for the bill for more than three years.

Computerworld reports that a California law firm has filed a class-action suit charging Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) and one of its subsidiaries with negligence in connection with a data breach that exposed 8.5 million people to identity theft.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, also accuses the transaction processor and outsourcer and its Certegy Check Services subsidiary of invasion of privacy and breach of contract. The suit does not seek specific damages. The complaint was filed by San Francisco-based Girard Gibbs LLP on behalf of the 8.5 million victims.

Fidelity National disclosed last month that a Certegy senior database administrator had illegally accessed and downloaded millions of consumer records and then sold them to data brokers.

Eric Gibbs, an attorney at Girard Gibbs, says that Fidelity National didn’t notify consumers of the theft “in a timely and adequate manner.” He also says that the companies failed to properly monitor and supervise the activities of employees entrusted with consumer data.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Ronald Steven Williams II, a Severn man, was sentenced to more than six years in prison today and ordered to pay restitution of at least $120,000 for stealing people’s identities and gaining access to private and corporate credit counts.

Williams pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to engaging in the fraud from June 29, 2001, to July 14, 2006. One example cited by prosecutors occurred in 2001 when they said Williams bought a home in Severn using a fake name and a child’s Social Security number.

Williams submitted false information to the lender to secure a $165,156 mortgage, and, three years later, sold the home using his own name and a different Social Security number, which belonged to an infant.

Prosecutors also said that Williams, using false identification, opened up lines of credit for tens of thousands of dollars.

According to Information Week, government authorities arrested and indicted five members of an alleged identity theft ring that was targeting billionaires from Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 richest Americans. According to Forbes, Texas billionaire Charles J. Wyly Jr. and other wealthy victims were the targets of the identity theft ring.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau says the defendants were charged with stealing $1.5 million and attempting to steal another $10.7 million from their victims’ financial accounts. Another defendant, Igor Klopov, was arrested in May and is in custody in New York.
Klopov, a 24-year-old Russian, was the alleged ringleader who mined the Internet to find personal identifying information. He was arrested in May after he came to New York to claim $7 million in gold that he thought had been purchased with money stolen from one of his victims.

The defendants face several charges, including conspiracy in the fourth degree, grand larceny in the first degree, attempted grand larceny in the first degree, money laundering in the first degree, attempted money laundering in the first degree, and identity theft in the first degree.

The Chair and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), and Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH), has introduced bipartisan legislation, H.R. 3316, that would allow consumers to freeze their credit reports and prevent identity thieves from opening new lines of credit in their name.

“Consumers should have every available tool at their disposal to fend off identity theft,” said Maloney in a press release. “In today’s hi-tech age, file freeze is an effective tool that can stop identity thieves cold in their tracks. Some states have already stepped up to the plate and enacted strong file freeze laws – it’s time the federal government gave all Americans protection and control over their personal credit information.”

“In Ohio and elsewhere, identity theft is no longer an abstract threat. When used wisely, a file freeze is the most powerful way to prevent fraudulent access to credit. This bill will provide all Americans with a significant weapon to protect themselves against con artists and thieves,” Gillmor said. “Just one month ago, a tape containing the social security numbers of close to one million Ohioans was stolen from the car of an intern in the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget. Thankfully most data breaches do not end with sensitive financial information being compromised, but the threat remains very real.”

Consumers in 39 states and the District of Columbia – including New York – have the right to activate credit freezes. This new bill would guarantee that all Americans are afforded the same credit protection. It would also create a central source where consumers can interact with the three national credit bureaus.