Identity Theft - 200,000 HP staff have details stolen

[financeguy]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13129-2100897,00.html

"FIDELITY INVESTMENTS has warned nearly 200,000 present and former staff of Hewlett-Packard in America to be vigilant in monitoring their accounts for the next two years after their personal details were stolen from Fidelity, the company’s pension fund manager, last week.
The 196,000 staff and exemployees of the computer hardware company are at risk of identity theft, one of America’s fastest-growing crimes, after a laptop containing details of their names, pay, pensions, addresses, birth dates and social security numbers was stolen from a member of Fidelity’s staff."


I think that identity theft is one of the most insidious crimes of our age.

 

[U2Girl1978]

That's just unbelievably scary. I always make sure to get my credit report every year.

I'm definitely freaked out by the uprise in identity theft.

 

[randhail]

I wonder if UConn's Marcus Williams was involved in this laptop heist.

 

[Carek1230]

Identity theft is the crime of the 21st Century. I've been a victim of it and let me tell you, it wreaks HAVOC on your life not to mention your credit! It is extremely wise to regularly check your accounts, statements, credit report, to invest in a good quality criss cross shredder and be very careful abut giving out personal, identifying information about yourself or your financials.

 

[Angela Harlem]

For a company which 'only' has 160,000 employees worldwide, that sounds like a lot of old records being kept on one laptop.

 

[verte76]

Last November someone hacked into my ebay account and started charging stuff to my account. Fortunately ebay got on top of it, nabbed the offending party, and returned my money. Whew! This stuff is scary!