This act specifies that identity theft victims have the right to contact the local law enforcement agency where they are domiciled and request that an incident report about the identity theft prepared and filed. The victim may also request to receive a copy of the report. Nothing in this act shall interfere with the discretion of the local law enforcement agency to allocate resources for investigations of crimes or to provide an incident report as permitted under this act.

A person commits a Class C felony if he or she manufactures or possesses five or more fictitious or forged means of identity with the intent to distribute to others for the purpose of committing a crime.

This act allows a consumer to request that a "security freeze" be placed on his or her credit report, which prohibits credit reporting agencies from releasing the consumer's credit report or credit score without specific authorization from the consumer.

Credit reporting agencies are directed to place a freeze on any consumer's credit report within five days of the receipt of such a request. The reporting agency must notify the consumer in writing within ten days of enacting the security freeze and must provide instructions for removing or temporarily lifting the freeze. The act provides timeframes in which credit reporting agencies shall comply with requests to temporarily lift or permanently remove a security freeze.

No fee may be charged by a credit reporting agency for a request by a consumer related to a security freeze if the request is accompanied by an identity theft incident report. For security freeze requests unaccompanied by an incident report, a fee up to $5 may be charged for a first request to place a freeze, and up to $10 for subsequent requests to place a freeze. A fee up to $5 may be charged for a temporary lift of a security freeze, but no fee shall be charged to permanently remove a security freeze.

Credit reporting agencies may issue credit reports subject to a freeze in certain circumstances that include: when requested or authorized by the consumer, pursuant to a court order, during times when the freeze has been temporarily lifted by the consumer, when used for prescreening purposes, when requested by a child support enforcement agency, for certain insurance purposes, to anyone with whom the consumer has an existing debtor-creditor relationship, when requested by the State of Missouri to investigate fraud or collect delinquent taxes, or when used by a credit monitoring service to which the consumer subscribes.

Credit reporting agencies must supply any consumer who believes he or she has been a victim of identity theft with a summary of rights as specified.

Credit reporting agencies that knowingly violate this act shall be liable for actual damages sustained by any affected consumer, the affected consumer’s court costs and reasonable attorney fees, and may be subject to other equitable relief assessed by a court.

Processors of applications for credit shall not be in violation of any law requiring applications to be processed within a certain timeframe if they are unable to process an application within the timeframe due to a security freeze being in place.

ERIKA JAQUES