Sinema’s bipartisan bill protects Arizona families from identity fraud

“Synthetic identity theft” is the fastest growing type of ID fraud in the US

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill introduced by Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09) to protect Arizona families from a new type of identity theft that predominantly targets children.

Sinema worked across the aisle with Congressman Carlos Curbelo (FL-26) to introduce H.R. 5192, the Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act. This bill cracks down on “synthetic identity theft,” a new and growing type of financial crime in which criminals use stolen Social Security numbers with little or no credit history to open bank or credit card accounts under assumed names.

“We must protect our kids’ futures from identity theft,” said Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema.“Our commonsense bill takes aim at the financial criminals who target Arizona children by strengthening ID verification for everyday financial activities. Today, we worked across the aisle and took a critical step to protect our kids and give Arizona parents peace of mind.”

Synthetic identity theft targets children due to their lack of credit history and leaves victims with ruined credit and mountains of debt, often before they’ve graduated high school. In Arizona, a 17-year-old girl discovered a scammer had accumulated over $725,000 of debt in her name. Her information was linked to eight different criminals who opened 42 accounts including mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.

Sinema’s bill combats synthetic identity theft by directing the Social Security Administration (SSA) to accept electronic signatures as “consumer consent” for financial institutions trying to verify customers’ identities. This ensures transactions not currently vetted by SSA, such as credit card applications, can be vetted quickly and accurately, closing a key vulnerability in the credit verification process.

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