Community issues

Free credit reports available for Illinoisans

Noting that March 1st began National Consumer Protection Week, Attorney General Lisa Madigan alerted consumers that beginning 3/1/2005, all Illinoisans can receive free copies of their credit reports once a year from each of the three national credit reporting agencies.

A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), known as the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT), established this program which requires the three national credit reporting companies—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—to provide consumers, at their request, with a free copy of their credit report every 12 months. Consumers are eligible to receive three copies of their credit report, one from each company, every year.

“It is important for consumers to keep a close and careful watch on their credit reports and credit histories, and this new federal law allows all Illinoisans to do so for free,” Madigan said. “I urge Illinoisans to use these resources to protect their credit ratings and their good names.” If consumers identify information in their reports that is incomplete or inaccurate, the consumer should report the alleged mistake to the credit reporting agency which is required to investigate all reports of discrepancies. The annual free reports are available only through the centralized source set up by the three credit reporting agencies.

To obtain the reports, consumers will be required to provide their name, address, Social Security number and date of birth. In addition, they may be required to provide their previous address and asked a question that only the consumer would know, such as a financial question.

Consumers also should be aware that www.annualcreditreport.com and the national credit reporting companies will never send consumers emails asking for personal or financial information. Any email that claims to be from these agencies should be considered a scam.

Consumers can visit the FTC website for more information at www.consumer.gov/ncpw. Consumers can visit Madigan’s website for consumer protection information at www.IllinoisAttorneyGeneral.gov or call the Consumer Fraud Hotlines: Chicago—1-800-386-5438 and 1-800-964-3013 (TTY); Spanish-language hotline: 1-866-310-8398.

Lifetime supervision for sex offenders

With over two-thirds of registered sex offenders in Illinois currently under no supervision, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has announced that she is proposing bipartisan legislation for Illinois’ most dangerous sex offenders.

Madigan said that currently Illinois has a one-size-fits-all system that includes a fixed 2-or 3-year mandatory supervised probation or parole for sex offenders regardless of their known high risk of recidivism. Under her proposal, mandatory supervised release would be extended to a range of 3 years to the natural life of the offender, based on the risk the sex offender poses to communities and families. This differs significantly from current supervision laws in which the length of supervision is a fixed number of years and cannot be lengthened based on the risk of the offender’s committing another sex crime.

The proposal would apply to the most dangerous sex offenders—those convicted of the following offenses: Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault and Criminal Sexual Assault. The effective date of the legislation is July 2, 2005.

“Illinois has approximately 18,000 registered sex offenders and nearly 12,000 of them are unsupervised,” Madigan said. Madigan’s proposal requires that sex offenders on lifetime supervision be supervised by specially trained Illinois Department of Correction (IDOC) parole agents.

The proposal also requires that bi-annual progress reports be submitted to the state’s Prisoner Review Board (PRB), with copies provided to the chief of police and sheriff in the municipality and county in which an offender resides and is registered as a sex offender.

“As a former police chief and current legislator, I applaud Attorney General Madigan for this most important piece of legislation. I believe this legislative initiative will reduce recidivism and make our streets safer,” State Representative John Millner (R-Carol Stream) said.

“We must do everything we can to protect the women and children of Illinois and prevent further victimization,” said Bob Jones, Gurnee Chief of Police and current president of the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association. “This bill is a significant step toward that goal.”

“The provisions that require chiefs of police to be given the latest information regarding a sex offender’s adjustment during parole are long overdue and go a long way toward making sure we know what risk an offender poses to women and children in our communities,” said Tom Braglia, Elmwood Park Chief of Police and past president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. This legislation is critical to helping law enforcement ensure dangerous sex offenders do not fall off of our radar despite our best efforts.”

Madigan’s proposal passed the Huse Judiciary Committee on February 25th with unanimous support. With passage of this bill HB 2386, Illinois will joins 12 other states in the nation that have additional protection for women and children that might be victimized—Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Another source to check area sex offenders is the Illinois registry at www.cookcountysheriff.org or by calling (708) FOR-KIDS

Top 10 consumer complaints

Kicking off National Consumer Protection Week, Madigan today announced her Consumer Protection Division received 24,050 consumer complaints in 2004. The 2004 list marks the 19th year the list has been released.

For the fourth year in a row, telecommunication complaints involving wireless phone service, Internet service, Internet auctions and other related problems topped the list of Illinoisans’ consumer gripes, logging 3,538 complaints, or 15 percent of the state’s 24,050 consumer complaints.

Telecommunications complaints to Madigan’s office consisted of issues related to wireless service and cellular phones (848 complaints), including poor reception, dropped calls and no service available in consumer’s area, among others; local phone service and repairs (745), including long waits for installation of service, general billing issues and errors and poor customer service, among others; long distance service (517), including complaints about calling plans, general billing issues and errors, poor customer service, not receiving low international rates, among others; Do Not Call (456), which includes soliciting consumers after they have signed up for the Do Not Call List; telecommunications equipment leases to businesses (344), including failure to provide advertised telecommunications service and related equipment; Internet service providers and Internet-related scams (342), including companies continuing to bill after contracts are cancelled, computer rebate offers with no local Internet service and billing for long distance charges when a consumer thought a call was local, among others; and other complaints (286), including cramming, slamming, pagers and calling cards.

The Top 10 are:

Madigan has taken new steps to reach out to consumers in the past two years, including outfitting a Mobile Community Service van that travels to neighborhoods and has “office hours” for consumers who might not be able to come downtown; translating consumer education brochures into multiple languages, translating the office’s entire website into Spanish; and sending a monthly “Consumer Corner” column to hundreds of publications, businesses and senior lefts across the state.

Madigan said consumers’ complaints are critical…and noted that in 2004, her Consumer Protection Division recovered through mediation claims of more than $4.175 million for consumers.

Consumers can visit Madigan’s website for consumer protection information at www.IllinoisAttorneyGeneral.gov or call the Consumer Fraud Hotlines: Chicago—1-800-386-5438 and 1-800-964-3013 (TTY); Spanish-language hotline: 1-866-310-8398.