dAMN yOU us govt

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Dreadsox

ONE love, blood, life
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I just received information from the VA.....

My SSN was one of those stolen last month.

:mad:
 
They cannot keep VETS stuff secure...how can we trust them I say How can we trust them...

Damn you Uncle Sam!!!!!
 
Ugh, sorry to hear that. Are they providing anything to you as far as services go? Or have they been more along the lines of, "Oops, sorry, but you're on your own"?
 
Basically, they said Be vigilant. Do not answer questions over the phone. Info is available at WWW.firstgov.gov.

They tracked me down through the IRS to let me know they lost my shit.
 
OMG.... There is an insert, not in the main body of the letter...My wife's SSN has also been compromised.....This is on a separate insert from the letter.
 
Be vigilant??? Isn't that what they told us to do about watching for terrorism? Sheesh.

THEY lost the info, THEY need to step up and provide free services through a fraud watch company or something like that for everyone whose data was compromised.
 
My father is a veteran- I believe he got a general letter, not specifically stating that his was on it. I'm sure my mother's was on it too.

Way to go US Govt, way to honor the vets. Disgraceful.


A lawsuit has been filed for free credit reports and $1000 compensation for each vet. That's about all they will do for everyone, if even that.
 
Wonkette

Have you purchased a used computer recently? If so, you could be in possession of stolen personal information for millions of U.S. veterans and active-duty military personnel. The Post reports:

Montgomery County police released a description yesterday of the stolen laptop and its external hard drive because they said it may have been purchased by someone who does not realize the value of its content. “It could have shown up at a yard sale or a secondhand store,” police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. “This is a time of the year when parents may be buying computers for kids going to college in the fall.”

Montgomery County police are offering a $50,000 reward for information that allows authorities to recover the laptop. The computer is a Hewlett-Packard model zv5360us and the external hard drive is an HP External Personal Media Drive.


An open letter to the VA, from a Wonkette reader and veteran whose personal information was stolen.

Here’s the email, from our justifiably infuriated correspondent:

I guess that this is old news, and probably no one cares, but identity theft can takes litterally years for someone to dig out of. The VA has potentially set 26 million veterans up for this and then sent us all letters saying “the Department of Veterans Affairs is asking all veterans to be extra vigilant and to carefully monitor bank statements blah blah blah.”

I am so appalled by this VA information debacle that I don’t even no where to start complaining. I have written to my congressmen in the past but I get the opinion that they aren’t all that interested. Anyway here is word for word my letter to the VA.

“You may contact me via email but you have lost your damned mind if you think that I am going to give you anymore addresses and phone numbers to lose.

I gave 8 years of my life to the us military, five on active duty, two and a half overseas and one in Iraq. You chose to keep hundreds of pages of information on me the least that you could do is to keep track of it. Then you have the audacity to tell me to keep an eye out for identity theft and put the responsibility on me to compensate for your ineptitude.

They have a phrase for the kind of gross stupidity that you folks practice its called “criminal negligence”. At least civilian companies have the good sense to make money selling my information. You and your a**-clown employees just lost it. Don’t bother to respond as I am aware that you have no intention of correcting any of your shortcomings.

Bravo to the VA taking care of the American Veteran!!”
 
Just what you need - to monitor your stuff closely...

I hope nothing comes of this. Wasn't the robbery random and not intentional just to get this info?
 
Hopefully, the data was erased by unknowing theives

Agency chief: Data on stolen VA laptop may have been erased

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thieves may have erased personal data on millions of veterans that was on a laptop they stole, the secretary of veterans affairs said Thursday.

At least, that's the burglars' modus operandi, Secretary James Nicholson said at a hearing before the House Government Reform Committee.

The laptop was stolen in May from the home of a Veterans Affairs employee who, in violation of agency regulations, took it to a private residence.
 
As if the identity compromise isn't enough, the local VA hospital here in Birmingham has announced that around 400 veterans who have had prostate biopsies there may have been exposed to HIV or hepatitis due to the probes not being properly sterilized. Story here.

~U2Alabama
 
bonoman said:
Ok...I know this sucks...but reading this thread you would think the end of the world has occured.

Relax shit happens...there are much more dire things in the world then this.

But it does suck

Very easy for you to say....I guess you think that aging vets, not myself, have loads of money laying around. This affects credit ect....when in the wrong hands. I know VETS that are barely making ends meet.
 
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U2Bama said:
As if the identity compromise isn't enough, the local VA hospital here in Birmingham has announced that around 400 veterans who have had prostate biopsies there may have been exposed to HIV or hepatitis due to the probes not being properly sterilized. Story here.

~U2Alabama

This is fucking horrific
 
nbcrusader said:
Hopefully, the data was erased by unknowing theives

Agency chief: Data on stolen VA laptop may have been erased


One erase into a trash file, does not erase the data. There are simple programs that can locate information that people think is deleted.

Sorry, but, I am not feeling very forgiving about this. If they cannot protect this information, they cannot protect anything.

The other thing that really has awakened me. The VA cannot track me down, but through the IRS they can. See, this is why I think the wire tapping shit is suspicious. They are throwing a net out, and very quickly, they can through another agency figure shit out.
 
U2democrat said:
Why was this stuff even allowed to leave the VA HQ????


Um.

This stuff isn't allowed to leave the VA HQ.

Did you read the letter?

An individual employee, in violation of VA procedure, took home a laptop containing the SS #s. The employee's house was subsequently burgled and the laptop was stolen.

Uncle Sam didn't do it. The US Government didn't do it. The VA didn't do it.

A thief and a neglectful VA employee did it.

Bonoman is right, relax shit happens. Every vet knows what kind of fubar situtations the military is capable of, so fix it and FIDO.

I only received the warning letter last week, but I have a permanent security flag at all three credit bureaus anyway, so I'm not worried about someone stealing my identity by picking my name out of the 26 million vets listed on that hard drive.

If they try, they will be caught.

Anyone panicked about this should follow Step 1 in the letter and contact the fraud departments of all three credit bureaus at the numbers listed and request a flag on your accounts.
 
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