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ChoicePoint Identity Theft Fallout Widens
dstates writes "A unique California law forced ChoicePoint to reveal that a break-in had compromised accounts revealing personal information on 40,000 southern californians and leading to more than 750 cases of identity theft. The company initially denied that the break-in compromised consumers outside of California, but CNN is now reporting that 110,000 accounts nationally have been compromised. 'The irony appears to be that ChoicePoint has not done its own due diligence in verifying the identities of those 'businesses' that apply to be customers,' said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. 'They're not doing the very thing they claim their service enables their customers to achieve.'"
ChoicePoint: "Who goes there?"
Voice: "Thurston Howell III"
ChoicePoint: "A likely story!"
Voice: "Sherlock Holmes"
ChoicePoint: "We weren't born yesterday!"
Voice: "Landshark"
ChoicePoint: "That's better, here's 35,000 files, let us know if you need anymore."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Start a fake company, register with ChoicePoint and look yourself up!
John.
Well, I just got your credit report from the 3 agencies, and I feel obliged to tell you that with an average FICO score of 559, you probably shouldn't be calling yourself lucky.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Checkpoint Client Verification = Did the check clear? Is yes then WELCOME ABOARD!
Apparently 110,000 people already did.
ust wait for a letter from a law firm informing you that you are a member of the class action suit against ChoicePoint.
optional additional steps:
2. Do nothing.
3. Profit!!!
Profit??? You'd get a coupon for 20% off your next Choicepoint break-in!
IANAL: I am not a lawyer (whew got one of them at least) :-)
GLBA: Gay/Lesbian/Bi Association??(I don't want to know how they get violated)
HIPAA: Some kind of privacy thing relating to medical records (can't recall exactly what it stands for) Health Information Privacy something something
SOX: I think Linux uses this to play sound files
CEO: Criminal Executive Office or something like that, often known as "head scapegoat" (and often rightly so)
I am not picking on you, just trying to provide some late Friday humor for everyone waiting to escape at 5pm.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
How does someone determine if Choicepoint had data on them?
Flip a coin.
Heads: They have megabytes of embarrassing data on you.
Tails: They have gigabytes of embarrassing data on you.
If the coin is struck in mid-toss by a meteorite, then you're one of those rare people who does not exist in any consumer databases.