Federal Trade Commission - Your National Resource for ID Theft Federal Trade Commission - Your National Resource for ID Theft  ¶ 3:53 PM

  Credit Reporting Services  ¶ 1:20 PM

  Credit Reporting Services  ¶ 8:07 AM

  Landlord Information
A New Option for Landlords: "First-time-buyers can benefit from a new letting scheme being launched later this week. But what's in it for the landlord?"

In The Motley Fool UK



ClearNow, Inc. and RHOL Form Strategic Alliance: "ClearNow, Inc. and Rental Housing On Line (RHOL) have formed a strategic alliance. As the leader in easy-to-use electronic rent payments, ClearNow enables RHOL readers to learn about its automatic rent collection service through RHOL�s family of Websites. RHOL is the Internet�s encyclopedia of information and services for property managers, landlords, and tenants. [eMediaWire Sep 14, 2003]"

In eMediaWire



Miller speaks on lead paint poisioning: "NEW YORK (AP) -- City Council Speaker Gifford Miller called lead paint poisoning a "terrible scourge upon the city" but said a proposal requiring landlords do more to protect tenants from it should be studied further."

In Syracuse.com: NY



Commercial Real Estate: Landlords and Tenants Wrestle With Wiring in New York Times: Technology

  ¶ 7:52 AM

  Major Credit Reform Bill Passes House By Wide Margin
by Kenneth R. Harney


The most far-reaching reforms to the American credit system -- touching virtually ever home buyer, every mortgage applicant -- passed the House of Representatives last week by a 392-30 vote.

Action now shifts to the Senate, where Banking committee chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-ALA.) is sponsoring a similar bill, but with additional consumer protections.

Among the key reforms in the House-passed measure are detailed new protections against identity theft such as improved fraud alerts on credit reports that would bar lenders from extending additional credit without specific authorization by the consumer.

Provisions in the House bill with special significance for home buyers and mortgage applicants include:


Mandatory provision of free credit reports not only by the three national repositories -- Equifax, Experian and Trans Union -- but by other regional and specialized credit data collectors such as medical information bureaus. Consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia would be able to obtain their full credit reports once every 12 months at no charge, upon request. Currently residents of only six states have that legal right.

Mandatory provision, upon request of a loan applicant, of the credit scores used in the underwriting process on a mortgage, line of credit or credit card. The scores, including FICO scores or proprietary mortgage scores used by many lenders, would not be free, but would have to carry no higher than a “reasonable” cost. Consumer groups such as the Consumer Federation of America criticized the House for not requiring free credit scores, arguing that low-income home buyers would be disadvantaged by having to pay fees to see their scores.

Mandatory notification of consumers by lenders anytime they plan to submit “derogatory” information about a consumer’s account to any of the national credit repositories. This requirement -- considered unduly burdensome by some financial institutions -- is designed to alert consumers to the existence of erroneous information in their credit files that could depress the credit scores they need to qualify for a home loan, other credit, employment or insurance.
For example, if your mortgage servicer incorrectly concluded that you missed or were late on monthly payments, you would have to be informed that the servicer planned to send this misinformation to the national credit bureaus. You would then be able to contact the servicer and attempt to straighten out the errors directly, and to alert the credit bureaus that the information is under dispute. Disputed credit file information normally is not included in calculations of credit scores.

Currently, by contrast, no consumer gets the slightest advance hint about negative information submitted by creditors with whom they have accounts. Typically they only learn of erroneous information -- and the attendant depressed credit scores -- when they seek credit elsewhere.

The House-passed bill, the Fair Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (HR 2622), differs from the Senate bill in a couple of important ways that affect mortgage applicants. The Senate bill would force creditors to notify loan applicants anytime their credit scores result in higher interest rates or fees on a loan.

Creditors would be required to issue “adverse action” notices anytime they “priced up” a mortgage applicant using credit data. This is especially important for home buyers whose lenders use “automated underwriting” systems with risk-based pricing features. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the giants of the home loan field -- both use proprietary risk-based pricing systems but do not inform applicants when credit information pushes them into a higher-rate category.

Published: September 15, 2003
Realty Times - Real Estate News and Advice  ¶ 8:50 AM

  Consumer group takes up financial privacy
By Francine Brevetti, BUSINESS WRITER
CONSUMERS UNION, the nonprofit consumer rights advocate, is taking a two-pronged approach to educating consumers about identity theft and influencing the government on matters of financial privacy. Its mouthpiece, Consumer Reports magazine, devotes its October 2003 issue ( www.consumerreports.org to setting out the ways in which consumers find their personal and financial data vulnerable to identity thieves.
Meanwhile, CU has erected a Web site, www.financialprivacynow.org, that enables the reader to direct e-mail to legislators. This is particularly pertinent now because legislation wending its way through Congress, HR 2622, would amend the existing law on sharing financial information, the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
San Mateo County Times Online - Business News  ¶ 8:49 AM

  Is Identity Theft Is Getting Easier?: "You'd think that progress in securing consumer's privacy has been made, given the recent spectacular reports of how easily SSNs and other valuable pieces of data are pulled down from the Internet, right? Guess again. Robert X. Cringely (ironically, an identity with two people behind it) recently had a very scary experience -- and found a trivial way to obtain several hundred thousand identities. 8O "Sure enough, in less than an hour I had updated names, addresses, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for the more than 300,000 entries that were in common across both CD's. What I produced in that hour was all the information required to steal the identities of 300,000 people, most of whom would be considered to have high financial (if not emotional or artistic) net worth. If I was a real criminal I could use this data over a period of 4-6 weeks to apply for online credit cards and bank accounts, to order credit reports that list where the victims do their banking so I could loot those accounts, too. Before anyone would notice I could grab that Secret Service equivalent of $217,000 per victim for a total take of $65 billion, which certainly beats my day job." As our lives get more connected, and we have more technology at our fingertips, I can't see this go anywhere but down. Do we have any hope in solving it?"

In Pocket PC Thoughts



Privacy Digest Weblog: "

I, Cringely | The Pulpit (PBS) - How to Steal $65 Billion - Why Identity Theft is a Growth Industry .
Recently my mail was stolen. It wasn't supposed to be stolen, which is a given, but it also wasn't supposed to be able to be stolen because I was out of town for two weeks and had the Post Office hold my mail. Only it turns out that in Santa Rosa, California at least, holding mail means different things to different mail carriers. Someone -- a substitute carrier I'm told -- saw that big old pile of mail down at the post office (the pile with the big "vacation hold" sign above it) and thought what the heck I'll just deliver that mail anyway. And so they did. That big old pile of mail sat in my big old mail box on my little old country road under a walnut tree and across from a pond and sometime in the next few days it was stolen. The only reason I know any of this is because a neighbor eventually found some of my mail and some of a lot of other people's mail strewn along the road like errant unmarked bills after a bank heist.
Here is something you probably didn't know. If you have the Post Office hold your mail and they do something stupid like NOT hold it for some reason, as happened to me, you have no recourse. They start an "investigation" of course, but since no investigator ever calls and certainly nobody reports back to me, the victim, I think this is pretty much of a ruse. They sure don't replace any of the mail. I had, for example, ordered from Amazon.com a copy of the 2003 Kelley Blue Book Used Car Guide. My neighbor found the envelope from Amazon.com , but not the book.
"Where's my book?" I asked the lady at the Post Office.
"Lost," she said.
"What are you going to do about it?" I asked.
"We'll start an investigation," she replied earnestly.
"No, I mean what are you going to do about replacing my book?"
"Why would we replace your book?"
"BECAUSE YOU LOST IT????"
[ ... ]
>But I have also used the time to learn more about identity theft and what I found is very scary. Identity theft is not only incredibly easy to do, but our government seems to go out of its way to help the thieves. The government is making many Americans more vulnerable, not less. This is crime just waiting to happen on a massive scale, thanks to computer technology.
[ ... ]
What we do know is that there is somewhere between 250,000 and 750,000 identity theft victims every year. While many cases are small, the U.S. Secret Service reported in one year investigating more than 7,000 cases with an average cost to victims and financial institutions of $217,000 or a total cost of about $1.5 billion. The American Banking Association reports identity fraud losses to its members of around $1 billion per year and the credit card companies absorb around $1.5 billion per year in such fraud losses.
Then there is the cost of fighting the problem, which ranges from $15,000 per case for the Secret Service to the average 175 man-hours that consumer counseling organizations report it takes victims to deal with the paperwork of restoring their financial lives to order.
[ ... ]
While government agencies are doing their pitiful best to keep this kind of data hidden (a GAO study last year found 14 out of 15 Federal agencies studied were inadequately protecting Social Security numbers), even after they've finally taken action to protect this information the danger is still present. That's because Social Security numbers last a lifetime and there is a lot of old data floating around out there, data that can be brought up to date with frightening ease.

"



House passes Fair Credit Reporting Act: "Americans would gain access to free credit reports and the ability to thwart identity thieves with a single phone call under bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House."

In The Washington Times: Business



Bill Helps Consumers Fight Identity Theft: "Americans would gain access to free credit reports and the ability to thwart identity thieves with a single phone call under bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House.
"

In AP Tech News



ID-theft laws OK'd: "House action could lead to free credit reports."

In USA Today: Web Guide



Bill Helps Consumers Fight Identity Theft: "WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans would gain access to free credit reports and the ability to thwart identity thieves with a single phone call under bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House. (By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press Writer )"

In FindLaw: Politics



Bill Helps Consumers Fight Identity Theft: "Americans would gain access to free credit reports and the ability to thwart identity thieves with a single phone call under bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House.
"

In AP Tech News



The House approved: "a measure that would ensure free access to credit reports for consumers and stronger protections against identity theft. But the bill could undermine tougher state laws."

In WSJ: US

  ¶ 12:41 PM