AUGUSTA, Maine — A new law taking effect on Thursday provides Mainers with an added layer of protection against identity theft.
The bill, An Act to Amend the Allowable Security Freeze Fees Charged by a Consumer Reporting Agency, was passed unanimously by the Legislature earlier this year, successfully overriding a veto attempt by the governor.
The law makes it easier for consumers to freeze their credit reports, thereby denying criminals one of the best methods for stealing a person's ID.
Maine is only the third state in the nation to introduce such a measure.
Retired machinist Tim Hamilton of Scarborough has not yet had his identity stolen. But almost every day, he says, he gets phone calls from people trying to elicit personal information from him.
"They insist that they're giving you something, or they have a foreign bank that has money in it and they want you to send them your name and a bank account that they could send to and it goes on from there," he says.
Hamilton was one of several seniors attending a community meeting at Scarborough police department Tuesday afternoon to learn more about protecting themselves from identity thieves.
In particular they're being advised how to make use of a new law taking effect this week.
"Identity theft is a huge problem," says Jane Margesson, communications director for AARP Maine. "It's estimated that literally every two seconds in the United States someone's identity is stolen."
One of the best ways to protect against ID theft, says Margesson, is to freeze your credit report.
"If you place a freeze on your credit report you are actually blocking identity thieves from accessing your most sensitive information," she says.
Up until now, consumers would have to pay $10 to each of the 3 consumer reporting agencies every time they want their credit report frozen or unfrozen.
"It may not sound like a lot, but $10 for each of the 3 bureaus, that's $30 to turn it on, $30 off, $30 on, it adds up and it's a great deterrent, especially if someone is lower income," Margesson says. "So this way with it being free there's really no reason for people not to take this very strong preventive measure."
Starting Oct. 15, Mainers of any age can freeze and unfreeze their credit report as needed, free of charge, through the use of a PIN number.
Margesson suggests keeping your credit report frozen most of the time, and unfreezing it only when a credit check is necessary — the purchase of a big ticket item such as a car, for example.
Scarborough senior Tim Hamilton says it makes sense.
"Sounds like a good idea actually if you put it that way, yeah," he says.
"This certainly is the one single step that consumers can take if they want to block information," says Will Lund of the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection. But, he adds, the measure does include some potential inconvenience.
"And that is that consumers that have frozen their files won't be able to, for example, walk into a department store and accept an offer of a credit card from someone sitting at the store offering store credit," he says.
For many consumers, however, Lund says this lack of access to instant credit is a small price to pay for enhanced protection against identity thieves, who last year victimized nearly 13 million Americans.