New legislation protects consumers

Governor Sonny Perdue signed three pieces of legislation to protect Georgia's consumers and prosecute identity thieves: House Bill 130, Senate Bill 388 and Senate Bill 24.

"This legislation will protect Georgia's consumers and prosecute identity thieves who would prey upon innocent, hardworking people," said Governor Sonny Perdue. "I want to thank the members of the General Assembly and consumer advocates who supported these important bills."

HB 130 enables Georgia's consumers to freeze their credit and keeps criminals from accessing their credit history. It also prevents unauthorized individuals from taking out new credit cards or loans. This legislation sets the credit freeze amount at $3 and strikes a reasonable balance between the fees credit bureaus need to charge while giving consumers the ability to quickly and effectively protect their credit.

SB 388, an initiative that Governor Perdue announced in January, establishes the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Identity Theft Task Force and transfers the authority to investigate identity theft from the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs to GBI. In addition to this legislation, Governor Perdue proposed and the General Assembly approved $1 million in the FY09 budget for the creation of this task force, which will support eight new agents.

SB 24 protects Georgia's consumers by increasing the penalties against identity theft by the use of Internet phishing, a method criminals use to steal an individual's identity through the Internet.