"Good Name in Man and Woman, Dear my Lord"

Amid all the problems and troubles that we deal with on a daily basis, identity theft continues to be one of the most feared nightmares that a person could face. William Shakespeare understood this when he wrote:

"Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;

"Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed."
- Othello, Act 3 scene 3

Identity theft has been the fastest growing crime in the world with tens of billions of dollars stolen every year. But what makes identity theft even more pernicious is that it destroys a persons credit and "good name" which is very expensive and difficult to restore. It is especially harmful to our seniors who have worked hard their entire lives to make good their name and credit and now find themselves special targets of identity thieves. As technology has progressed, identity theft has become more sophisticated and in many ways it has made it much less complicated for the scammer to find and take what he wants. Our office has been at the forefront of using technology to protect the public. Our I.R.I.S. website and database has won national awards, and we continue to look for other ways to help people protect themselves.

Wednesday we held a press conference to announce that a new state law is now in effect that allows anyone to freeze their credit and protect their credit ratings. It also allows you to thaw the freeze in just 15 minutes to make purchases. I'm proud that Utah stuck to its guns with the credit bureaus who wanted to make consumers wait three days like they do in all other states with credit freeze laws. State Senator Carlene Walker is primarily responsible for this bold and powerful new proactive tool for Utahns to protect themselves. In our office, Assistant Attorney General Rich Hamp and Chief Deputy Kirk Torgensen worked tirelessly to make it happen.



My grandmother used to tell me "Mark, protect your good name. It is more valuable than diamonds and rubies." She was right. Now we can at least protect our good credit by freezing our credit reports so identity thieves can't finance their sorry lives on our good name and credit.

Let this ice sculpture of Lady Justice be a symbol to ID thieves that Utah's new Credit Freeze Law will stop them COLD!





For more information on Utah's new credit freeze law and contact information for the credit bureaus, please go to our IRIS website: http://www.idtheft.utah.gov/.

Here are some clips of the press conference:

You can also read news stories at:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700257994,00.html

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10435935?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com