Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today that two companies have agreed to pay the state a total of nearly $1.5 million for violating laws aimed at curbing identity theft.

Fort Worth-based RadioShack and Select Medical Corp. of Pennsylvania were charged with violating state laws about properly disposing of customer records that could be used by identity thieves, Mr. Abbott said.

Under Texas law, businesses are required to redact, erase or shred documents that include customer’s bank account numbers, Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers. Both companies failed to do so, Mr. Abbott said.

“They need to ensure that the customer’s information is protected,” he said. “Identity theft is a real threat.”

Under the settlement, Select Medical Corp. will pay $990,000 to the state, Mr. Abbott said.  The company was charged after the Levelland Police Department found more than 4,000 documents containing personal information and medical records in a Dumpster.

RadioShack agreed to pay $630,000 for dumping thousands of records and receipts that included the some of the same information.

No reports of identity theft have been linked to either case, Mr. Abbott said.

Both companies also agreed to provide additional training to employees on records disposal and will perform unannounced audits.

Identity theft is a growing problem nationwide.  Texas has the second-highest number of cases compared to other states.  The City of Dallas had 1,900 cases in 2005.

“You’ll never eradicate the problem, but you can curtail it,” Mr. Abbott said. “Businesses and people have ignored the problem. They don’t pay attention until they are affected.”