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Choicepoint to alert additional 110,000 of identity theft risk
EFL. Follow up on a previous report. You may want to request a copy of your credit report to see if you've been hit. The Credit Bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.The number of people being notified that they may have been caught in a massive identity-theft scam quadrupled Wednesday — to 145,000. ChoicePoint Inc., one of the nation's largest collectors of consumer data, said it would warn 110,000 people outside California that con artists posing as merchants had looked at information including addresses, phone listings, Social Security numbers and credit reports. The company took the step after criticism that it was sending warning letters only to 35,000 possible victims in California, where state law requires such disclosure. Although breaches of credit bureaus and other such collectors occur from time to time, the scale of the yearlong ChoicePoint operation was among the largest ever uncovered. ChoicePoint is used mostly by landlords and merchants for background on potential tenants and customers, but it counts law enforcement and other government agencies among its clients. Its databases contain a host of information, including links to the three credit bureaus. The scammers used 50 fake ChoicePoint merchant accounts to look at the personal information of thousands of people nationwide. That information can be used to open credit card accounts or buy goods under assumed names. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Det. Duane Decker said he had identified 750 people who had been defrauded by the ring, which operated for more than a year before it was detected in October. One person was arrested, and investigators are searching for other suspects. Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-18 |
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