The state House has passed legislation that would allow Georgia residents to block credit reporting agencies from giving out their information without written permission.

Under this bill, consumers would pay $3 for each security freeze, a total of $9 for the three reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). It also would allow agencies to charge $3 for consumers to lift it permanently or “thaw” their accounts temporarily when they need to release their information to lenders.

The House also added an amendment that requires the agencies to develop an electronic way to temporarily lift the security freeze.

The legislation must now be approved by the Senate before it goes to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s desk.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office says as many as 300 thousand identities have been stolen in the state. According to KCPW News, a bill to create a Document Fraud-Identity Theft Unit within the Attorney General’s office passed a House committee on Capitol Hill Friday.

However, the bill has been critiqued by Hispanic activists. Tony Yapias of the Utah Latino Project says the bill assumes only undocumented immigrants steal personal information, such as Social Security numbers. He says that if Governor and the AG’s office felt it was important to increase identity theft prosecution, it would have already been in the office’s budget.

Substitute House Bill 95 would budget $275,000 for the hire of three staffers for the Identity Theft Unit. It now goes to the full House for consideration.

DM News reports that Virginia governor Timothy M. Kaine introduced legislation that would standardize corporate response to data breaches to the state’s General Assembly. This would protect consumers against identity theft and credit fraud.

The proposed law requires businesses to notify consumers if their personal information is compromised or made public. It also allows the consumer to initiate a freeze to prevent new accounts from being opened in the consumer’s name.

Credit reporting agencies could charge a $5 fee for starting or lifting a freeze, although the fee would be waived for identity theft victims.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking comments on the impact and effectiveness of credit freezes on or before February 25.

According to the Deseret Morning News, a bill that would allow identity theft victims to obtain restitution for the time spent repairing their credit has passed a Senate committee. The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee passed SB52 unanimously. Sponsored by Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights, it would create an hourly compensation system for victims to be reimbursed.

The Utah Attorney General’s office says that victims can spend as many as 600 hours addressing the credit issues that can come from identity theft. This bill would alleviate some of that pressure.

A Pennsylvania woman was arrested for allegedly using customer credit-card accounts to make $6,700 in charges via the Internet. Police say she obtained bank card numbers and customer names while working at Pizza Hut in Ebensburg.

According to the Tribune Democrat, police received a complaint earlier this month from a resident about an unauthorized charge on a credit card. Further investigation with Master Card and Visa companies yielded a number of unauthorized charge disputes in the region, and all had a common denominator: The victims all had patronized the same restaurant at least once since May. The fraudulent purchases were traced to Jamie Lynn Roush, a Pizza Hut employee.

Roush was charged with seven counts each of identity theft, access device fraud, theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and receiving stolen property. She also was charged with one count each of intimidating a witness and false swearing.