800 ChoicePoint ID theft vicims got no payments from $5,000,000 fund?
According to this article at CollectionIndustry.com, the FTC keeps the ChoicePoint ID theft victims from getting settlements.
Quite unbelievable!
But then again, it’s the FTC, so why am I surprised?
ChoicePoint Data Breach Victims Still Await Payments
September 21, 2006by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com
Happy almost-eight-month-versary to defrauded ChoicePoint customers! You’re still without any kind of cash settlement, though, right?
ChoicePoint is one of the largest data aggregators and resellers in the country. What does this mean? It means they collect your personal information and sell this information to marketing firms and advertisers – not to mention employers, debt collectors, loan officers, media organizations, law offices, law enforcement, etc.
It’s legit – if sticky – and few people knew about ChoicePoint or ChoicePoint-esque operations – until data thieves opened fake accounts at ChoicePoint and had access to roughly 19 billion records.
Federal regulators stepped in, and they secured a settlement with ChoicePoint (whom they found to be liable for the breach) to compensate the 800 folks affected by the breach. A fund was set up with $5 million dollars.
The Federal Trade Commission also has not yet implemented procedures for how the 800 fraud victims it has identified so far can apply for and receive compensation from the fund, nor has it hired anyone to administer the fund on behalf of the agency, FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell told the Associated Press.
The delay is being attributed to a cautious investigation. Jessica Rich, assistant director of the FTC’s division of privacy and identity theft, said that “law enforcement is still identifying victims, and we want to make sure we have the right people.”
Law enforcement will be identifying victims FOREVER. The illegally obtained data is out there, it is actually quite likely that Ed Magedson (Ripoff Report) obtained MY data (he e-mailed me Steve Miller’s personal identifying data for publication, probably obtained from ChoicePoint) and my data could be used ANY TIME. Today, tomorrow, or in 25 years.
After all, I can’t change my birthdate, social security number, etc.
And when I tried to report Ed Magedson’s illegal activities, NOBODY gave a rat’s ass. That’s the best part, those morons in “law enforcement” as well as at Kinko’s where he used the computers couldn’t have cared less.
Posted by Christine on 09/21/2006 at 03:44 PM
ID Theft - demand your PIN! • Privacy - what happened to it? • (0) Comments • Permalink
