The state’s two legislative bodies seem intent on doing something about the ever-growing problem of identity theft. The N.C. House recently approved legislation that would help protect consumers from having their personal information stolen by identity thieves. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

The House measure, sought by the state Attorney General’s Office, would:

• Minimize the use of Social Security numbers as identification numbers and restrict the sale and display of the numbers;

• Give consumers the right to place a security “freeze” on their credit reports to block an identity thief from opening new accounts or obtaining credit in consumers’ names;

• Require businesses to notify their customers if a security breach may have compromised their customers’ personal information and placed them at risk of identity theft;

• Make sure that businesses that are disposing of personal identifying information about their customers or destroy or shred those records, so that identity thieves can’t retrieve information from discarded files that have been carelessly thrown away;

• Prohibit state and local government agencies from unnecessarily collecting people’s Social Security numbers, or from disclosing the numbers to the general public if the government has them.

Identity theft happens when a criminal steals some piece of personal information, such as a consumer’s Social Security number or date of birth, and uses it to commit financial fraud in the person’s name. Some identity thieves give their victim’s names to police where the victims are arrested for committing crimes, causing innocent people to be charged with crimes they didn’t commit.

About 300,000 North Carolinians have their identity stolen each year, according to a press release by the state Attorney General’s Office. A typical identity theft victim spends on average $800 and 175 hours over 23 months to clean up his or her credit and erase $18,000 in fraudulent charges. The national cost of identity theft annually is $55 billion, including billions of dollars in losses to businesses.

Reps. Bruce Goforth, Ronnie Sutton, Joe Kiser and Karen Ray introduced House Bill 1248. Sen. Dan Clodfelter introduced a companion bill, Senate Bill 1048, in the Senate.