According to a Raleigh News & Observer article, North Carolina passed a law that allows people to freeze their credit reports to thwart identity thieves. Essentially, by freezing their credit reports, the person creates a shield around their credit report so that companies attempting to view their credit report are denied. Since creditors generally will not grant credit to people when they cannot access their credit report, this keeps identity thieves from applying for credit cards, loans, etc. under the victim’s name. This is one of 40 laws that North Carolina is enacting in order to combat a problem that carries a national cost of $48 billion a ear for businesses and $5 billlion for consumers.

Read more about this by accessing the N&O article here.