FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers convened a two-day National Summit on Identity Theft today and announced four new initiatives targeted at cracking down on the increasing threat of identity theft.

Criminals are exploiting new technologies to make a significant profit from an old crime," said Treasury Secretary Summers. "We will continue to work with the private sector to strengthen our efforts to combat this threat."

Called for last year by President Clinton, the Summit will address the prevention of identity theft, remediation and enforcement efforts with the public and private sector. The Summit will consist of a series of panels and more than 150 participants from federal, state and local government agencies, financial institutions, credit card companies and reporting agencies, as well as identity theft victims, consumer advocacy groups and private sector representatives.

The four new Treasury initiatives to help combat identity theft include:

• Skimming and counterfeit check databases currently used to identify common suspects, defendants of identity theft, and address criminal trends prevalent in financial crimes today. These databases were developed and are maintained by the U.S. Secret Service in partnership with the financial industry;

• A computer-based training module developed by the U.S. Secret Service that will focus on financial crimes and all pertinent statutes including identity theft, and be made available within the agency as well as local and state law enforcement officials throughout the U.S.;

• A pilot program, developed by the U.S. Secret Service and Citicorp, to help identify suspicious activity on electronic commerce. The program will attempt to develop a protocol for the identification of identity theft and other schemes used to commit bank fraud, credit fraud and money laundering within electronic commerce and the immediate notification of law enforcement authorities; and

• Forums and mini-conferences to maintain a dialogue between the private and public sector.

Treasury's National Summit on Identity Theft is the first national level conference involving law enforcement, victims, industry and nonprofits interested in the issue.