It was announced on September 29th that the Mayor of New York is putting into place a “comprehensive plan to help prevent fraud and identity theft”. This is to help the public become more aware of this problem and be more careful about handling and protecting their personal information.

Almost 12,000 New Yorkers are reported to have been victims of identity theft last year. This is a fast growing crime and makes many feel that there is nothing that they can do about it. This is a motivating reason for the city to do what is possible to combat the number of people who will be affected by this crime.

The Mayor has instituted new programs to help New Yorkers avoid becoming victims. This will include a continuation of their annual free shredding event and new laws to protect citizens that including the requirement that businesses notify local police, Department of Consumer Affairs and potential victims if there is a chance that they might become victims of identity theft due to a data breach into information held by the reporting company.

Mayor Bloomberg will also require that signs be posted on public computers and in areas where wireless internet is available (coffee shops, public venues, etc).

These practices, along with others that require businesses to be more accountable for data stored on computer servers, are being implemented to help reduce the amount of victims seen in the city.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.