ITAC President Anne Wallace on National Crime Victims Rights’ Week

April 18 – 24 is National Crime Victims Rights’ Week, which focuses our attention on ensuring fairness, dignity and respect for victims of crime. This is an important national priority. For too long, crime victims were left on their own to solve the problems caused by crime and governmental and private help was limited.

As the leader of ITAC, the Identity Theft Assistance Center – a pioneer in helping victims of identity crime – I want to celebrate National Crime Victims Rights’ Week and urge colleagues in other industries affected by identity crime to join ITAC in addressing the needs of identity crime victims.

ITAC was created in 2003 by The Financial Services Roundtable and its member companies. Since the victim assistance center opened in 2004, ITAC has helped more than 66,000 individuals recover from identity fraud. Our unique service is free to consumers and paid for by their financial services company.

ITAC is committed to putting the consumer first and solving fraud from the consumer’s vantage point. It’s often noted, and it’s true, that identity crime has more than one victim. Identity crime wreaks havoc on merchants, government agencies, banks, colleges, and others. But it’s the individual whose personal information is compromised who experiences not just financial loss but also the fear and frustration of identity crime, and most needs help in getting through that experience. ITAC calls on colleagues in retailing, telecommunications, health care and elsewhere to commit themselves to fairness, dignity and respect for identity crime victims.