The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

Beginning Thursday, Indiana residents can electronically request that the three major credit agencies freeze access to their credit information.

An Indiana law allows consumers to freeze their credit histories and information to protect themselves from identity theft and fraud. The law initially gave consumers the option to contact the credit reporting agencies by certified mail.

The full effect of the law begins Jan. 1 so consumers can now contact the agencies by telephone or e-mail in addition to mail, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said during a visit to Fort Wayne on Tuesday.

The law has been in place for more than a year. The delayed start to the electronic option was written into the law to give the agencies time to comply, Carter said.

Consumers’ credit information should be frozen within 15 minutes after they contact the agencies. Consumers will also receive personal identification numbers they can use to lift the freeze, Carter said.

Consumers can continue to contact the agencies by mail but will receive a slower response, he said.

During the law’s first year, Equifax, one of the three main credit reporting agencies, failed to give 19 consumers a PIN to confirm that their accounts had been frozen within the required time frame.

In December, Equifax agreed to comply with the law and to pay $65,000 to the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Fund as part of a court settlement. Equifax denied any wrongdoing, and the settlement prevented a lengthy legal battle.

The attorney general’s new ID theft unit monitors compliance with the law and was involved in the case against Equifax. The 10-month-old unit has resolved 250 cases, and 127 cases remain under investigation, Carter said.

The identity theft unit’s work resulted in the arrest of 10 people, many from central Indiana, during that time and recovered more than $468,000 for Indiana consumers, he said.

The unit’s attorneys and investigators do the bulk of the work for county prosecutors, who are typically bogged down by violent crime cases. Carter has offered to let his attorneys prosecute the cases, but no Indiana prosecutor has yet to take him up on the idea, he said.

Carter doesn’t know how many Indiana consumers have taken advantage of the new credit freeze law, because they don’t have to go through his office to start the process. But he expects more will use the option now that they can pick up the telephone or send an e-mail, he said.

The number of identity-theft complaints filed with his office increased during the past several years. Three years ago, the office took 22 complaints. Last year, 70 complaints were filed, Carter said.

aiacone@jg.net