Identity Theft and Pretext Calling - OCC

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)Identity Theft

This advisory letter informs national banks about two areas of consumer bank fraud—identity theft and pretext calling—and advises them about measures to prevent and detect these types of fraud. The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), enacted in 1999, directs the federal banking agencies (the Agencies) to ensure that banks have policies, procedures, and controls in place to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of customer financial information and to deter and detect fraudulent access to such information.¹ The Agencies recently adopted guidelines for the safeguarding of customer information by financial institutions.² The advisory letter supplements those guidelines by focusing on the protection of customer information specifically against identity theft and pretext calling.

Identity theft is the fraudulent use of an individual’s personal identifying information. Often, identity thieves will use another individual’s personal information such as a social security number, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, or account number to fraudulently open new credit card accounts, charge existing credit card accounts, write checks, open bank accounts or obtain new loans.

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