Providing ID Theft Data to FTC

The Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) is sponsored by banks. Banks refer victims to ITAC to work on regaining their identities and limiting the damage done by the ID thief. They take consumers through the detailed tasks needed for this such as helping them review their credit reports, place fraud alerts, and notify companies that appear to have opened accounts in the consumer's name, for the thief. They have helped over 2,000 victims already. ITAC will now be providing information to the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC places information collected from ITAC in its Consumer Sentinel database. This is accessible by more than 1,300 federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies. It is used as a source of information to further ID theft investigations, said George Handley, a unit chief of the FBI's Financial Institution Fraud unit.

While banks have worked directly with law enforcement, with ITAC this pooled information will now be available. This pool should help law enforcement as they will have more information and it will cross jurisdictional boundaries. The Consumer Sentinel database provides such information and also helps aggregate individual reports to help spot large fraud schemes. This will allow aggregate damage to be seen from similar scams, as an example.

ITAC adds another resource to you and your customers, in addition to the excellent information from the FTC.
http://www.idtheftcenter.org/
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/