Compliance Alert

Maine Legislature Enacts ID Theft Bill

The Maine legislature has enacted a bill designed to facilitate the process of cleaning up the credit reports of identity theft victims.

The bill was sponsored by Maine Rep. Carol Grose (D-Woolwich) and signed into law March 16 by Gov. John Baldacci.

House Bill LD 1834, "An Act to Accommodate Victims of Identity Theft," has been referred to as "the missing piece" in Maine’s identity theft laws and will clarify that information on a credit report resulting from ID theft qualifies as inaccurate data, according to a press release from the Maine legislature.

"Identity theft victims often have trouble fixing their credit because information relating to the incidents is ascribed as negative, rather than inaccurate," Grose says. "This new law will eliminate a few of the hoops that victims of have to jump through to restore their credit."

The text of the bill reads, "If a security freeze is in place, a consumer reporting agency shall expunge any information in the file of a consumer that resulted from identity theft."

In an earlier session, Maine also enacted two other ID theft laws. The first required brokers of personal information to notify consumers when their personal information has been compromised. The second law allows customers to freeze their credit reports when they learn they have been victimized by identity theft.