M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC, is sponsoring an audio conference May 31 covering a new FTC regulation on employee identity theft. I had not seen any information on this regulation. Does anyone on BOL have a link to user-friendly information on this reg? Here is a quote from the advertising:

Quote:

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Starting in just 4 weeks - - on June 1 - - nearly every U.S. employer MUST be in full compliance with the FTC's new regulation on employee identity theft. Make no mistake. This new regulation is very serious. Employers whose employees' identities are stolen are subject to:

Potentially huge actual damages from employees;
Statutory damages of up to $1,000 per employee;
Civil fines of up $2,500 per employee;
Class-action lawsuits.

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I would also be very interested in knowing about this as this is the first I have heard of it.

I researched Smith's website and could not find any information on the seminar. Can you provide a link to it?

However, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (FACT Act) required the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, OTS, NCUA, SEC and FTC, in coordination with one another, to adopt consistent and comparable rules regarding the proper disposal of consumer report information and records. The final rules have been issued and will become effective on June 1, 2005. You can find the final rules at the following link: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2004/11/041118disposalfrn.pdf.

Bob, I'm not sure where we gained a month because I read the same materials as you citing June 1 as the effective date. I assume that was just the FTC. Banking agencies are looking at July 1, not that it is a huge difference.

Came across the conference info - http://www.hrhero.com/audio/IDTheft.shtml? (went to mleesmith.com, then to Human Resources, then to Audio Conferences).

From what I'm reading, the seminar is going to cover document destruction, which is part of the FACTA. I think, as bankers, we're already complying with this and aware of our responsibilities for sensitive information and detering identity theft- as long as you treat your employee's information as confidential as you keep your customer's information (including destruction of it), you don't need to waste time and money on the seminar.

Here's an excerpt from an article entitled Workplace Identity Theft by Maria Recadle, found online at http://print2.jobfind.com/technology/view.bg?articleid=3677

"When applicable, comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) requiring the proper destruction of “consumer information” (i.e., any record about an individual, whether in paper, electronic or other form, that is a consumer credit report or is derived from such a report). FACTA requires any person or company that possesses or maintains such information to “tak[e] reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to or use of the information in connection with its disposal.” Businesses must come into compliance by June 1, 2005, by adopting and implementing their own document destruction policies or by contracting with a document/data destruction company to do so. "