ID THEFT—Abigail Caplovitz, NJPIRG's legislative advocate, explained to NJN why New Jersey has one of the strongest identity theft laws in the country—and why Congress shouldn't undercut it.

One year after NJPIRG helped pass one of the nation’s strongest identity theft laws, Congress is looking to pre-empt New Jersey’s consumer protections.

New Jersey’s identity theft “freeze” provision—the strongest of the 17 states that have passed such laws—went into effect at the start of 2006. The new law allows residents to place a security freeze on their credit reports, effectively blocking would-be thieves. By locking identity thieves out of your credit report, you maintain control over any new accounts made in your name.

Such a freeze would protect the victims of a security breach, like the 26 million veterans affected by the recent data blunder, and protect them before their financial information is breached.

Unfortunately, federal legislation could overrule the state law by reserving the power of the security freeze for identity theft victims only.

“New Jersey residents deserve to have their credit protected before —not after—they’re victimized,” said NJPIRG Legislative Advocate Abigail Caplovitz. “Congress should not go soft on identity theft crime by weakening New Jersey’s law, one of the strongest in the country.”

Too many New Jerseyans are identity theft victims. Using Federal Trade Commission data, we calculated over 200,000 New Jerseyans were victimized in 2004.