Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: FTC to Hold Identity Theft Forums, (Feb 14, 2013)
By Tobias J. Gillett, J.D., LLM.
The FTC will hold two public forums on identity theft issues: (1) a workshop on the harm caused to older Americans by identity theft in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2013; and (2) a town hall on identity theft and tax fraud in collaboration with the Florida Attorney General’s Office in Boca Raton, Florida, on February 20, 2013.
Identity Theft and Older Americans. The FTC’s workshop on issues related to identity theft’s impact on older Americans will bring together public-sector, private-sector, and consumer representatives to discuss means of informing seniors and caregivers about identity theft, and of protecting them from it.
Topics covered during the workshop may include:
Medical identity theft and seniors’ vulnerability to it;
Possible impacts of tax- and government benefits-related identity theft, and ways of protecting seniors’ identity during the transition of government benefit programs away from paper;
Identity theft in nursing home and assisted living contexts, and means of minimizing seniors’ exposure to it;
Practical methods of providing outreach to seniors, the best ways of communicating educational messages to older consumers, and who the most effective messengers could be.
The workshop will be free and open to the public, and will be held at the FTC’s satellite building conference center located at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Entities and organizations can submit requests to participate as panelists, or send recommendations for topics to be included on the agenda, by e-mailing them to seniorIDtheft@ftc.gov, or by delivering them to 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room H-113 (Annex B), Washington, D.C. 20580, no later than April 5, 2013.
Identity Theft and Tax Fraud. The FTC’s town hall on identity theft and tax fraud will include discussion of the use of stolen Social Security numbers to obtain tax refunds, and will cover how such fraud occurs, what efforts law enforcement is making to combat it, and how consumers can prevent it or respond to it if it occurs.
Participants at the town hall will include U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (Florida), Congressman Ted Deutch (Florida), FTC Southeast Region Director Cindy Liebes, and Richard Lawson, Director of the Florida Attorney General’s Office’s Consumer Protection Division, as well as other law enforcement and consumer representatives.
The town hall will be free and open to the public, and will be held from 9 a.m. until noon in the Boca Raton Police Department Training Center, 6500 Congress Avenue.
The FTC also today issued tips for consumers to aid them in avoiding tax-related identity theft.
News: ConsumerProtection Privacy FederalTradeCommissionNews