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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Attorney General's Office is working to make life easier for identity theft victims and plans to ask the Legislature for 400-thousand dollars to expand its Web site reporting system.
Currently, the Attorney General's Office offers an Identity Theft Reporting System found at www.idtheft.utah.gov that lets people fill out an online affidavit of victimization. It is then sent to the proper law enforcement agency. That agency will verify whether the person is a victim and send confirmation back to the Attorney General's Office.
Plans are to upgrade the system so that in the future a victim's name could be placed in a database accessible to credit rating bureaus, retail companies and others that legitimately check someone's credit.
The Attorney General's Office also is tracking identity-theft offenders in a database.
Hopes are that a system can be in place so judges in various jurisdictions will have information about an identity thief's past convictions prior to any sentencing in a new case.
The Legislature convenes in January.
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Information from: Deseret Morning News
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
