Walk It Through: The Account Opened In My Name
A Nevada data breach letter, then a loan nobody applied for, and what the law does about both.
A letter arrives from an online store: its systems were breached, and customers' names and account numbers may have been taken.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One breach and one loan. What counts as personal information, the federal credit reporting rules, a civil suit against the company, and the separate procedure for a victim to correct records are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Data collectorA business that owns or licenses computerized personal information, and discloses a breach of its system's security to every Nevada resident whose unencrypted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person.
- Identity theftKnowingly obtaining someone's personal identifying information and, intending an unlawful act, using it to harm the person, to impersonate the person, or for another unlawful purpose such as getting credit, goods or services in the person's name. It is a category B felony.