Being unaware that I couldn't post a link in my original report, here is much of the content of my web page at the link that was redacted.
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U.S. consumers who, during the first weeks of July, received a letter from Certegy Check Services, Inc. that discloses the recent theft and subsequent sale of sensitive information in that company's database, should be on alert that this security breach has almost certainly resulted in, and may continue to result in instances of identity theft.
A San Francisco law firm has filed a class action lawsuit against Certegy Check Services on behalf of approximately 8.5 million consumers nationwide (at last count) whose financial and personal data was stolen by an employee of Certegy.
Florida-based Certegy Check Services (formerly known as Equifax) is a leading provider of credit, debit and merchant card processing, e-banking, check risk management and check cashing services to financial institutions and merchants.
Despite Certegy's repeated claims that "there is no evidence that the information stolen was used for any purpose other than marketing", there is evidence to the contrary including statements found at online forums posted by other alleged victims of identity theft activity which occurred not long after having received the letters from Certegy. There is also the common sense reasoning that there can be no guarantee that sensitive information in the hands of a thief will be used only for marketing purposes.
I am a resident of Maine, and also a victim of identity theft which occurred just thirteen days after having received the letter from Certegy. On that letter was a specific account number (last four digits) which corresponds to the account which was involved in the identity theft.
It is difficult to dismiss these instances as purely coincidental, and naive to assume that identity theft will not occur as a result of the misappropriation of information in Certegy's database.
While there is not yet definitive proof that there is a correlation between the Certegy breach and reports of ID theft, those who have received the letter from Certegy should take protective measures immediately by vigilantly monitoring their financial accounts to ensure their personal information is not further compromised. Further, it is advisable to put a "fraud alert", or better yet, a "freeze" on their credit reports at the three credit reporting bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.