Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge What would YOU do????

So my wife, Krista, took a class as she approaches her Doctorate in Education. She gets this letter today from the Universtiy of Missouri St. Louis(UMSL) stating they may have exposed her SSN along with her name and address in the address window on a previous mailing. Well sure enough, they did. UMSL went on to say that they can offer a credit monitoring service at a discounted price to be sure her ID is or isn't stolen.
WHAT THE **** IS THAT!!!
They expose her name, address, and ssn in the address window of mailing and offer her a freaking monitoring service FOR A GREAT PRICE as their answer to THIER SCREWUP!!!

Now I ask you fine people, what would you do next?

They sent that letter to Angela too. Fortunately it was only her federal ID #, whatever that is... But yeah, not offering the monitoring service on their dime is crap.

She's thinking of calling FOX2.

I'd suggest you contact a lawyer! As well as the university dean directly and demand they pay in full for a monitoring program. Then keep very good track of her credit report so as you can get stopped any criminal activity in the beginning. May want to check out Dave Ramsey's website as he's very good at financial problems and has much better advice than I could ever offer.

I hope there's no problems for you two.

That's one of the reasons we ask for anyone wanting to use our SSN for as an ID number, to assign a random number. Maybe at a University you can't do that, don't know.

Sue! Sue! Sue!

They potentialy ruined your wifes and your lives and expect you to pay to find out how badly?

A$$holes

Speaking of Dave Ramsey, buy identity theft insurance. http://www.zanderins.com/idtheft/idtheft.aspx

I haven't but I'm tempted. My credit card company called and said someone started charging on my card yesterday. There's a reason I only have one non-debit VISA card: online purchases.

Sorry to hear about that Chris. Seems others here are chiming in with good advice... like insurance for example. I'd be tempted to push UMSL for some free help with the situation. Hope everything works out for the best.

Put a fraud alert on your credit. It doesn’t cost anything and as long as no one has
already stolen your identity it will stop potential problems before they start.

Never heard of a fraud alert. How does it work? Do you have to contact all 3 credit agencies?

Her name address and social are out there. They are out there anyhow if somebody really wants them. Car dealers, banks, doctors, insurance companies. Her social is in dozens of placed with very little control over theft.

They don't have her credit cards, bank numbers and don't look like her. I would say its not that bad.

Bad is when they get the credit card and the little 3 digit deal on the back. That is bad.

With what they have they cannot move or change bank accounts nor show up in person without her ID to do any changes.

Dave Ramsey and his silly Zander scam. You really need to read the policy and read what they pay and what they don't. Its a good, good, moneymaker for Zander.

Its like buying getting hit by lightning insurance as a single peril.

I have a friend that is a police officer and he nearly had his identity stolen.
He said that you could call each of the credit agencies and have the fraud alert
put on your identity for either 90 days or six months, I can’t remember which.

He also thinks you may be able to have your bank do it for you.
Personally I would rather call them myself.

Well, I hate to say it, but it sounds like a scam by the college itself to sell an insurance premium. In your post, you said that the college letter stated "your ssn... may have be compromised". In other words, they are not saying that they DID compromise her numbers, only that it COULD have happened. Plenty of room here for lawyers to wriggle with. I know I have a dirty mind, but colleges have been seeking new avenues of revenue for a few years now, including "college" credit cards, handed out like candy to incoming freshmen. Of course, the card is a name brand card with the college logo on it, and the college gets a small percentage of the profit. I'm willing to bet this is the same thing. Selling identity insurance with the college getting a small percentage of the premium payment. Bu all means, look into it. But I'd be willing to bet that if you tracked this down to the college official who is in charge of this, (And held their feet to the fire) he/she would quickly look into their records and THEN assure you that your numbers weren't compromised after all. If I'm right, I'd sure like to know later, as I have some relatives in the same college system.

Quick questions:

You say that you recieved a letter saying that all your info was on display in a previous letter?
How did they know this?
And if they did spot it before posting, why did they still post it if the visable info was that vital?

Is it just the cynic in me that is wondering if it was all a scam to get people to buy their monitering system?

So I'm not the only cynic, just the slower typer

The way I read it was the last mailing, the way it was folded made her ss# visible in the little envelope window. Meaning postal workers could have seen her social.

Correct. The letter said the last mailing so she got out the last mailing, put it in the envelope it came in, and her info was visible through the address window.

Thanks for all the view points everyone. I appreciate both sides of the worry scale. I'm going to talk to some lawyer friends I know at work on Monday and see what they say before I make any moves.

This happened to me once, and the monitoring service was on their dime. To offer the service at a cost to the person whose information was compromised is a request for a lawsuit!

Have you contacted the University to see if the notice did come from them?

I didn't think of it at first, but could it have been an agency passing itself off as the University.