1 1 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 2 INDEX 3 4 CONTENTS PAGE 5 6 OPENING REMARKS 7 Mr. Hugh Stevenson 3 8 Ms. Jodie Bernstein 4 9 10 PANEL 1 - VICTIMS’ PANEL 9 11 Moderators: 12 Joanna Crane - Attorney, Division of 13 Planning and Information, FTC 14 Mari Frank - Attorney, Author, Privacy 15 Consultant 16 Joe Genera - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 17 Eric Graves - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 18 Robert Greer - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 19 Kathleen Hamilton - Director, California Department 20 of Consumer Affairs; Consumer Victim of 21 Identity Theft 22 Kathleen Lund - Investigative Assistant, Division of 23 Planning and Information, FTC 24 Deborah North - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 25 Nicole Robinson - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 2 1 CONTENTS PAGE 2 3 PANEL 2 - CLEARING UP THE VICTIM’S 4 CREDIT HISTORY - PART 1 91 5 Moderators: 6 Helen Foster - Attorney, Division of 7 Planning and Information, FTC 8 Christopher Keller - Attorney, Division of 9 Financial Practices, FTC 10 Janine Benner - Consumer Associate, CALPIRG 11 Eric Graves - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 12 Robert Greer - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 13 Robin Holland - Vice President of Consumer Services, 14 Equifax, Inc. 15 Phil McKee - Assistant Director, Internet Fraud 16 Watch 17 Stuart Pratt - Vice President of Government 18 Relations, Associates Credit Bureaus, Inc. 19 Nicole Robinson - Consumer Victim of Identity Theft 20 Barry Smith - Senior Vice President for Fraud Policy 21 & Strategy, Bank of America 22 Maxine Sweet - Vice President of Public Affairs, 23 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. 24 David Szwak - Attorney, Bodenheimer, Jones & Szwak 25 Diane Terry - Trans Union LLC For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 3 1 CONTENTS PAGE 2 3 PANEL 3 - CLEARING UP THE VICTIM’S 4 CREDIT HISTORY - PART 2 179 5 Moderators: 6 Betsy Broder - Assistant Director, 7 Division of Planning and 8 Information, FTC 9 William Haynes - Attorney, Division of 10 Financial Practices, FTC 11 Robert Cross - National City Bank 12 James Fishman - Fishman, Neil & Armentrout 13 Jim Flynn - Bladensburg Police Department 14 Linda Foley, Identity Theft Resource Center 15 Joe Geneva - Consumer, Connecticut 16 William Haynes - Division of Financial Practices 17 Jack Jordan - Los Angeles County Sheriff’s 18 Department 19 Shannon McCallum - Travelocity.com 20 Janine Movish - GE Capital 21 Debra North, Consumer victim 22 Werner Raes, Anaheim Police Department 23 Patsy Ramos - SBC Services 24 Barry Smith - Bank of America 25 Judith Welch - Chase Manhatten Bank For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 7 8 9 10 11 IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM ASSISTANCE WORKSHOP 12 13 14 15 OCTOBER 23, 2000 16 17 18 19 FTC HEADQUARTERS BUILDING 20 ROOM 432 21 WASHINGTON, D.C. 22 23 24 25 For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 5 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 - - - - - - 3 MR. STEVENSON: My name is Hugh Stevenson 4 from the FTC, thank you all very much for coming 5 today to our workshop on identity theft. Here to 6 welcome you is the distinguished director of the 7 FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Jodie 8 Bernstein. 9 MS. BERNSTEIN: Thank you very much, Hugh. 10 And thank all of you. 11 (Applause.) 12 MS. BERNSTEIN: Thank you so much. Let me 13 reciprocate by thanking all of you for coming to our 14 workshop today. I know that it’s going to be a very 15 productive session. I will only take a few minutes 16 to talk with you about it and then we’ll get busy, 17 because we have a very, very full agenda for both 18 days, and we look forward to it. 19 You may all recall that at the Treasury 20 Summit on Identity Theft in March, we all agreed 21 that this was a serious issue, and to further our 22 discussion and debate toward bringing some light on 23 this subject, we identified three issues for further 24 scrutiny. 25 As you all recall, I think they were For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 6 1 prevention, prosecution and victim assistance. Our 2 workshop today is going to focus on the latter, that 3 is victim assistance. 4 And to update you on the other events for a 5 moment, the Social Security Administration will 6 convene its workshop on prevention this Wednesday, 7 October 25th, and that will be held across the mall 8 at the Department of Health and Human Services. The 9 Department of Justice, the Secret Service, will host 10 a workshop for law enforcement on December 6th on 11 investigation and prosecution. 12 But the goal of today’s workshop is to 13 examine the problems victims experience with trying 14 to restore their good name to financial health. And 15 to explore the concrete steps we can take to make 16 the process less burdensome. In particular, in 17 particular, we hope to make progress on two 18 initiatives that were raised at the Treasury Summit, 19 and I must say have been raised in other fora as 20 well. In fact, one of them has been incorporated 21 into legislature proposals introduced on Capitol 22 Hill this session, and depending on what kind of 23 progress we all make, probably will come back again. 24 The first is one we’ve come to call one-stop 25 shop, a process by which a consumers call to any one For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 7 1 of the three major consumer reporting agencies, or 2 to the IDT hotline, will result in placing a fraud 3 alert on the consumer file and all three consumer 4 reporting agencies. The second initiative is a 5 standard fraud declaration report identity theft 6 activity to the bank, creditors, debt collectors or 7 other entities involved. Rather than filling out a 8 separate fraud packet for each of the institutions 9 involved, the victim would fill out the standard 10 fraud declaration once and send signed copies to 11 each of the companies involved. 12 Both of those issues have arisen, as I said, 13 at the Treasury Summit, and both have been discussed 14 in -- on Capitol Hill, and in other fora as well. 15 I’m very optimistic and think that if we can 16 make progress on those two issues, as we work 17 together through these two days, we will have 18 accomplished a great deal. 19 Each and every one of you deserve kudos, and 20 I would like to give them to you today, for being 21 here with us to work through these issues. 22 Especially the financial institutions. We know that 23 your role in restoring a victim’s good name is very 24 complicated. And if you hear some minor criticism, 25 not by name, but in regard to your institutions, we For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 8 1 hope you’ll take it in the spirit that it’s offered, 2 as a factual matter, and hopefully in a constructive 3 way, we will work together to overcome any negatives 4 of that sort. 5 The main thing is, though, that you’re here 6 and you’re indicating your willingness to work with 7 us, and with all the groups that are involved here, 8 and we really do thank you for that. Similarly, I 9 would like to thank the law enforcement people who 10 are here today, they’re all stretched thin. We are, 11 as well, but again, it’s something that’s necessary 12 for all of us to work together. We haven’t always 13 in the past, and we intend to further that goal as 14 well. 15 The consumer advocates and private attorneys 16 that are here today, similarly I would like to 17 mention, again, because this involves so many 18 different parties and so many different interests, 19 that without the full participation of all of you, 20 we would not make as much progress as I think we are 21 capable of doing today. 22 So, I know it’s a sacrifice for all of you 23 to be here to spend the time with us, but I think it 24 will more than justify it if we achieve what we’re 25 setting out to do today. For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301) 870-8025 9 1 In regard to our part, as you know, we’ve 2 made some progress I think internally. The Identity 3 Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of ’98 directed 4 the FTC to establish a decentralized victim 5 complaint consumer service for victims. We 6 established a consumer complaint hotline for victims 7 of identity theft and a centralized national data 8 clearinghouse to share the complaint information 9 equally. And many of the -- much of the trend data 10 and other collections will be described to you and 11 some are in your materials today. I think that in 12 itself should prove very helpful. 13 As you know, we also enforce a number of 14 consumer credit laws, some of which touch on the 15 issues that we’re involved in today, but law 16 enforcement certainly has its place, however we are 17 not focusing on that today, but rather on 18 cooperative efforts to begin to resolve the number 19 of issues that we’re trying to get through.