ChoicePoint Sued Over Identity Theft

[NashVegas]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California woman has sued ChoicePoint Inc. (CPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for fraud and negligence after criminals gained access to a database of personal records compiled by the company.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last Friday and claims that for at least five months the company failed to adequately protect people's financial records and confidential information.

more
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-02-23T172648Z_01_N23621931_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-FINANCIAL-CHOICEPOINT-DC.XML

Before anyone gets excited, look at what Wired reported this morning:

Legal experts say that people who suffered losses as a result of the breach will find it difficult to get compensation from ChoicePoint for selling their personal data to con artists, even if the victims can prove that ChoicePoint was negligent in screening customers who purchased their data. That's because courts have been unwilling to penalize companies when victims of identity theft are not their direct customers.

.........

This strikes an ironic chord for privacy advocate Richard M. Smith, who noted that the company's inability to verify and authenticate the identities of its own customers led to the recent breach in which scam artists illegally purchased consumer data from the company and stole the identities of more than 700 people.

Last October, ChoicePoint uncovered suspicious activity during an audit and contacted law enforcement agents to determine if it was fraud-related.

An investigation revealed that unknown perpetrators had used stolen identities to open 50 customer accounts with ChoicePoint to purchase data on at least 145,000 individuals. They purchased data for more than a year before ChoicePoint discovered the fraud.

http://wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66685,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

[alexisfree]

1. i want in on that class action suit

[physioex]

5. I agree.....

They need to be sued for gross negligence. And there ought to be a way that you can opt out of having such information collected about you.

[joeybee12]

2. Correct me on this, but ain't CheckPoint in Georgia, and the company is

a big supporter of Repukes? Could this breach not be accidental?

[stanwyck]

16. Katherine Harris hired Choicepoint

(using taxpayer money) to cleanse the voting rolls in Florida. She tightened the parameters so a person was struck from the rolls even if their middle initial was different than the felon with the same first and last name. So, upstanding Joe R. Smith was erased along with long time felon Joe Q. Smith. Those targeted were from longtime Democratic voting areas.

[meti57b]

3. Is this the sort of class action suit that bush wants to prohibit?

Suing choicepoint is a great idea. Having your ID info stolen, results in major big-time hassle that often goes on interminably.

I wonder what gives these companies the right to profit from our ID information.

[durablend]

19. I'll bet they're LOVING it

Your credit score/rating goes down the toilet due to identity theft and your creditors make sure to nail your ass to the wall and charge you up the wazoo in penalty interest and or punishment.

It's a republican's WET DREAM! :mad:

(if anything, a class action suit should require them to reimburse their victims for monthly credit reports for a year)

EDIT: I see they're already doing that for the "victims"...at least they're proactive and not sweeping it under the rug.

[cosmicdot]

26. Sen. Grassley's sponsored bill fast-tracked through ...

and just signed into law on 2/18/05 with Smirk smirking with the good ol'boys ...


don't know if it goes into affect immediately or down the road ...

the idea is to send the cases to corporate america-friendly federal courts which will continued to be filled with CNP-approved and Federalist Society/Ed Meese-approved radical right-winger appointments ...


~snip~

Federal courts are expected to allow fewer large class-action suits to go forward, which Democrats say means more businesses will get away with wrongdoing and fewer ordinary people will be protected.

"It's the final payback to the tobacco industry, to the asbestos industry, to the oil industry, to the chemical industry at the expense of ordinary families who need to be able go to court to protect their loved ones when their health has been compromised," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts. "And these people are saying that your state isn't smart enough, your jurors aren't smart enough" to hear those cases. ~snip~
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/18/limiting.lawsuits.ap/

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Does anybody know how we go about to find out if we were victimized?

[adarling]

9. go to their website

or contact them, they are helping everyone and also giving free credit protection or something for a year

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. The spokesman for that place is some smooth talking redneck

bastard. They are leech low lifes who mine "public" data on contract. Why "public data" is allowed to be bought and sold is beyond me. The whole thing is out of control and needs to be stopped.

[Trillo]

13. When I give a check to a merchant,

I'm giving that merchant information regarding my checking account, routing number, as well as some basic photo ID information, solely for the purpose of the merchant's bank being able to accurately transfer the money from my bank account to theirs.

Why that data is considered to be 'public' data, is, IMO, a constitutional scandal.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

7. It's time to bury the DOMESTIC SPYING AGENCY "Choicepoint" with lawsuits

The CIA supposedly can't spy on US citizen in the States, so they just farm out their domestic spying needs to Choicepoint. Apparently, Choicepoint is just as inept as its government clientele in securing secrets. The CIA is impossible to sue, so privacy and civil liberty advocates need to go after their private industry surrogates.

JB

[adarling]

8. its not just their fault guys

If anyone actually took the time to read in depth in newspapers they would realize that California gave these guys the right to operate their "fake" business. Yes choicepoint has responsibility as well, but i think they are doing a pretty good job cleaning it up. It is opening a dialog for everyone to address the situation, which i am sorry to say, most of the country doesn't know or care about how much of their information is out there. Choicepoint has done some pretty awesome things especially when they have helped find missing children and also identify remains from 9/11. Also, the company isn't all GOP, i happen to know there is a huge democrat at the top there, so don't assume anything until you get the real story and not the opinions from hotshot news reporters who are bored off their ass and jump on the first story that will get them a couple extra dollars when they should be covering the Gannongate story.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

10. Wasn't ChoicePoint the company that scrubbed the voter rolls in FL

before the 2000 election?

Or am I thinking of a different company?

[adarling]

11. it was one of the companies they bought after the election

They had nothing to do with it, it was a rumor thing that went around. The bought that small company up for their data and they were involved with that crap. Thats whats sad is that every company has a dark side and a good side. Their not getting an ounce of good press, one person wrote something that was good, i will try to find the link

[Tyrone Slothrop]

15. Big shareholder, are we?

:-)

[adarling]

22. hahaha

No, i am just well connected with Choicepoint and i know alot about what is going on, i am not going to say much cause its not my place, but i wanted to defend them cause i know someone at the top. Trust me, i never listen to talk radio, put that out of my mind along time ago, i am a child of the internet :). I am not trying to sway anyone here cause i love the DU, it brings me hope in a hopeless world :(, but i don't want us to start turning into what the MSM is, a bunch of rumor filled harpies that feed off anything. Trust me, they didn't have anything bad to do with that crap in Florida, Katherine Harris hired the company that Choicepoint bought, think of it as an offshoot, but not directly with the company in a way. Also, i am too young to own any stock that expensive ;(

[stanwyck]

18. not a rumor. Public record

Katherine Harris hired Choicepoint to scrub the Florida voting rolls. You're wrong with the "they had nothing to do with it." Turn off the talk radio (they don't give you factual information) and use Google on Choicepoint.

[sonias]

12. Yes, same sloppy, sleazy corporate bastards

http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/04/voter_file/index.html
(snip)Early in the year, the company, ChoicePoint, gave Florida officials a list with the names of 8,000 ex-felons to "scrub" from their list of voters. But it turns out none on the list were guilty of felonies, only misdemeanors. The company acknowledged the error, and blamed it on the original source of the list -- the state of Texas.
(/snip)

And this is why Congress moved to force class action suits into federal courts instead of State jurisdiction perhaps. The bushies owe ChoicePoint big time.


Sonia

[Francine Frensky]

14. But you gotta remember this was just a company doing what

katherine harris asked them to do, It was perfectly legal and right for them to present a list of names based on the criteria given to them. that's their job and they do it thousands of times a day. The PROBLEM is that katherine harris should never have asked for that list, and then she should have done something with that list, like compare it to voter rolls for accuracy, after she purchased it.

[stanwyck]

17. That was Choicepoint

hired by Katherine Harris.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

20. I'm confused.

Is there a difference between ChoicePoint and Choicepoint?

[stanwyck]

28. Should be ChoicePoint

my error.

[durablend]

21. All credit reporting agencies are scum

Be it Choicepoint, Experian, Equifax, Transunion (my favorite :puke:), or one of the others that sprout up like weeds.

[adarling]

23. clearing up florida and choicepoint

Hopefully this answers everyone's questions and if not, e-mail me.


Your question: "Is this the same company that was used in FL2000 to take ca 90,000
(probable/possible democratic) voters off the voting rolls?"

Yes, this is the exact same company that has constantly been associated with this – though in actuality, they had NOTHING to do with it. DBT was the company who owns this responsibility and DBT no longer exists as an entity as it was acquired by ChoicePoint in May of 2000 (at which time the contract between DBT and Harris had already drawn to a conclusion). Some constantly insist the two were/are connected. I guess technically, when one company acquires another, they acquire that company's history as well, but it hardly seems fair for anyone to conclude that they were in any way responsible for contracts that took place before they bought it. Some people have been made aware of this distinction more than once and refuse to acknowledge the difference

In 1998, Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris undertook to cleanse the state’s electoral rolls of unqualified voters. The $4 million job of sifting through the rolls and purging them went to DBT Online (now known as Database Technologies), the Boca Raton, Florida-based subsidiary of Choice Point, Inc. Choice Point had originally spun off from the giant credit data firm Equifax. Using the massive criminal history, credit, motorist, insurance and other personal files amassed by its parent Choice Point and CDB Infotek, another Choice Point subsidiary, DBT determined that a number of Florida voters, mainly African-Americans, were not qualified to vote when, in fact, they were. Those ruled ineligible to vote included 8,000 Floridians listed as felons in a Texas database. However, many of the individuals were guilty of only misdemeanors and therefore should not have been stripped of their voting rights under Florida rules.
Link: http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02march/march02corp3.html

[Xithras]

24. This "scam" isn't all that hard to pull off.

To get access to credit reports through a CRA, you often need little more than a business license, a tax ID, and a DUNS number.

So here's how to steal 10k identities:

1) Get a business license using a forged ID (easy enough).
2) Get a state and federal tax ID using your new fake business license (NO ID required).
3) Get a DUNS profile set up using your spiffy new (and fake) ID, business license, and tax ID.
4) Set up an account with the CRA of your choice, or an intermediary like ChoicePoint. They'll want copies of your business license and your DUNS number to ensure that you're a legitimate business.

Scam complete. You now have unencumbered access to every credit report in the United States. Simply input a valid SSN, and they'll return to you a credit report with enough information to successfully steal someones ID. With a company like ChoicePoint, you can even built a target profile and they'll return thousands of profiles to you for a small fee.

FWIW, I have both a business license and a DUNS, and I'm constantly getting junkmail from companies trying to sell me these services (even though I'm a one man operation running out of a remodeled closet in my house). It's amazing how little protection your personal information has from "legitimate" business people.

The real problem is that there's no way to really stop this sort of thing without eradicating credit reports altogether.

[Trillo]

25. "no way to really stop this sort of thing without eradicating credit

reports altogether."

Disagree, there is a 'capitalist' solution. I'd license the use of my information, provided that for every access, I received a fee. The information broker could be considered a middle person.

This would also provide some incentive for them to make sure their system was secure. If my data was accessed, but they received no payment for that access, they'd still be required to pay me my fee.

The distinction I'm drawing, is one where I retain "ownership" of my data, but that it isn't considered "private". Personal property, not private property.

Of course, some others might insist on complete privacy, perhaps that should be their right. All might not insist on that, however.

The way their system is currently set up, if I write a check to a merchant, the merchant becomes an unwitting accomplice to the database's theft of my information, provided to the merchant by me for one purpose only: to accurately transfer funds on a one-time basis.

[cosmicdot]

27. ChoicePoint's Board of Directors is well-connected

from March 19, 2004, proxy to shareholders
``````````````````````````````````````````

John B. McCoy, 60, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since December 31, 2003. He is the retired Chairman of Bank One Corporation, a bank holding company. From June 2000 to December 2003, he served as Chairman of Corillian Corporation, a provider of online banking and software services. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Bank One Corporation from 1984 to 1999.

Mr. McCoy currently serves as a director of
SBC Communications, Inc., a telecommunications service provider,
Cardinal Health, Inc., a provider of health care services, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, a corporation supporting home ownership and rental housing.



Thomas M. Coughlin, 54, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since January 2001. Mr. Coughlin has served as Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a retail store chain, since August 2003. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart Stores and Supercenters from 1998 to August 2003 and served as Chief Operating Officer from 1995 to 1998. Since joining Wal-Mart in 1978, he has served in a variety of positions including Vice President of Loss Prevention, Vice President of Human Resources, Executive Vice President of Sam’s Operations, Executive Vice President of Specialty Groups and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart Store Operations.

He is a director of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Derek V. Smith, 49, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr. Smith has served as Chairman of the Board since May 1999 and as Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company since May 1997. He also served as President of the Company from May 1997 until April 2002.

and holds 3,203,677 shares


Dr. John J. Hamre, 53, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since May 2002. Dr. Hamre has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-partisan, non-profit research institute, since January 2000. Dr. Hamre served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1997 until 2000 and as Comptroller under the Secretary of Defense from 1993 to 1997. Dr. Hamre received his Ph.D., with distinction, in 1978 from the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University.

He serves as a director of ITT Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of engineering products, and as an advisory board member for several organizations.

Terrence Murray, 64, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since May 2002. He served as Chairman of the Board of FleetBoston Financial Corporation, a diversified financial services company, from 2001 to 2002 and served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer from 1982 through 2001, except in 1988, when he served only as President and from 2000 to 2001, when he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

He serves as a director of
FleetBoston Financial Corporation,
A. T. Cross Company, a producer of writing instruments,
CVS Corporation, a retail drugstore chain, and
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., a gas and chemicals company.


Douglas C. Curling, 49, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since May 2000. He has served as President since April 2002 and as Chief Operating Officer since May 1999. He served as Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer from May 1999 to May 2000 and served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Company from 1997 until May 1999.

James M. Denny, 71, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since June 1997. From September 1995 to December 2000, Mr. Denny was Senior Advisor to William Blair Capital Partners, L.L.C., a private equity investment company. He served as Vice Chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Co., a retail department store chain, from 1992 until his retirement in 1995.

He also serves as a
director of GATX Corporation, a diversified financial services company and as
Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences, Inc., a bio-pharmaceutical company.

Kenneth G. Langone, 68, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since May 2000. Mr. Langone has served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Invemed Associates LLC, an investment banking and brokerage firm, since 1974.

He also serves as a director of
The Home Depot, Inc., a home improvement retailer,
General Electric Company, a diversified industrial corporation, Unifi, Inc., a producer of textile yarns,
YUM! Brands, Inc., a food services company, and several private corporations.

and, holds 1,965,011 shares

Charles I. Story, 49, has served as a director of ChoicePoint since June 1997. Mr. Story has been President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of INROADS, Inc., an international non-profit training and development organization, since January 1993.

He also serves as a director of Briggs & Stratton Corporation, a producer of gasoline engines, and as an
advisory director to AmSouth Bank.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1040596/000095014404002826/g87584ddef14a.htm

beneficial ownership of the outstanding ChoicePoint common stock


Baron Capital Group, Inc. 9,682,610 shares 11%
whoever they are/he is
BAMCO, Inc.
Baron Capital Management, Inc.
Baron Asset Fund
Ronald Baron
767 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10153

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. 6,555,459 7.4%
100 East Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

FMR Corp. (which is Fidelity) 5,551,697 6.3%

[cthrumatrix]

29. corporate connections -- it's one big mafia