In a move to provide consumers with another tool in the fight against identity fraud, the nation's credit reporting companies announced April 16 that they had simplified the way victims notify them about the crime. By making only one toll-free call to any of the nationwide credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), identity theft victims can be confident that one phone call will result in all three companies taking the same aggressive steps to help protect their credit information.

When an identity fraud victim calls any one of the three national credit reporting companies, the company contacted will share that information with the other two. Each company will follow a standardized three-step process to post a security alert on the credit file, opt the victim out of preapproved offers of credit or insurance and mail the victim a copy of his or her credit file.

Stuart Pratt, president and CEO of the Consumer Data Industry Association said this is the newest in a series of proactive and voluntary initiatives by the credit reporting industry to make it easier for victims to communicate with its members and to help protect them from additional identity fraud.

CDIA members formed the first industry task force to address the issue in 1997. Since then, several programs have been adopted by the industry to specifically target the crime of ID fraud. Some of the more significant initiatives are:

• Adopting a six-point program that includes a standardized three-step program for responding to victims, ensuring victims' files remain corrected after a reinvestigation by providing additional free disclosures of files during the next 90 days, assisting consumers in contacting their creditors regarding the crime and implementing procedures that help creditors better identify fraud alerts on credit reports;

• Without additional reinvestigation procedures, deleting fraudulent items from appearing on the credit report when the consumer submits a police report notifying the credit reporting agency of crime; and,

• Supporting educational efforts of groups like Call for Action and others as they provide consumers and victims with materials on identity fraud prevention.

"We will continue to work with victims to ease their burdens, to partner with lenders to prevent additional identity fraud from occurring, and to support law enforcement's need for additional resources to properly investigate the crime and prosecute criminals," Pratt said.

The credit reporting companies' fraud assistance departments can be contacted at the following numbers. A single call to just one of these numbers is all that a victim needs to make:

Equifax	1-888-766-0008
Experian	1-888-397-3742
TransUnion	1-800-680-7289

In a separate announcement, CDIA named Nancy Camm as its director of Government Affairs. Camm was most recently manager of Government Relations for the Consumer Bankers Association where she worked extensively on financial services issues affecting the banking industry. She represented the industry before Congress and various regulatory agencies as well as managed the CBA political action committee.

Camm is a member and past president of Women in Housing and Finance. She is also a member and former vice chair of the Women's High Tech Coalition and served on the Tax Coalition of the Legislative Liaison Advisory Committee of the American Bankers Association.

Founded in 1906, the Consumer Data Industry Association is the international trade association that represents more than 400 consumer data companies. CDIA members include the nation's leading institutions in credit reporting, mortgage reporting, check verification, fraud prevention, risk management, employment reporting, tenant screening and collection services.