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New laws help protect identity
theft victims Protecting consumers who fall victim to identity
theft is the aim of several new laws.
There are approximately 10 million identity theft victims in the
United States. Identity thieves open new accounts in their victims'
names and rack up debts on existing accounts using consumers' bank
account information, Social Security numbers, addresses and phone
numbers.
House Bill 1633 requires state and private entities to
disclose security breaches to individuals whose personal information
is kept by the entity.
House Bill 2697 prohibits anyone from secretly
photographing personal information during a financial transaction.
House Bill 2696 makes it unlawful for individuals to be
denied credit or public utility services or have their credit limit
reduced solely because they are a victim of identity theft.
Senate Bill 1799 requires the Illinois Department of
Revenue to provide notification whenever it is discovered that two
individuals are using the same Social Security number.
House Bill 2699 increases the penalties for identity
theft and aggravated identity theft by one class higher than the
current law.
Senate Bill 123 requires the Illinois Department of
Natural Resources to remove Social Security numbers from hunting and
fishing licenses and create a customer identification number to keep
track of people who annually get hunting and fishing licenses.
The Federal Trade Commission estimates the identity theft victims
suffered more than $52 billion in losses last year.
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 New law extends insurance for military personnel
A new law will allow active-duty military personal to remain as
dependents on state employee health insurance after they return
home, if they are older than 23 but not yet 25 and if they are still
attending school.
House Bill 116 was suggested by a Metamora resident whose son
was attending college and was called up for active duty. When he
returned to school, he was over the age of 23 and technically no
longer qualified to be claimed as a dependent on his parent's state
employee health insurance.
The new law states that a state employee's child can remain a
dependent for an amount of time less than or equal to the amount of
time he or she was on active duty when between the ages of 19 and
23.
Given their service to our country, it makes sense to allow
military service personnel to remain on their parents' state
insurance until they finish school.
[From
Sen. Bill Brady]
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