"Choicepoint" is one of the major accumulators of persnal info about just about everybody in the US. It's used by credit agencies, businesses, landlords, law enforcement, oh, and also, identity thieves.
It looks like they've been a bit careless.
Here are excerpts from their own statement, followed by a comment from EPIC:
"ChoicePoint has notified approximately 35,000 California residents that their information may have been accessed by a very small number of criminals posing as legitimate companies to gain access to information about consumers. Additional disclosures will be forthcoming to approximately 110,000 consumers outside of California whose information also may have been accessed. Law enforcement officials informed us today that their current investigation has identified approximately 750 people who have been the victims of identity theft in this incident.
"It appears that consumers names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit reports may have been viewed by these individuals, who posed as legitimate business customers with a lawful purpose for accessing information about individuals which, in fact, was not the case...
" ... issued notices to over 30,000 California residents that their personal information may have been accessed by criminals with access to the Choicepoint's information products. Individuals outside California may have been affected too, but the company is not obligated to disclose security breaches to residents of other states. As recently as two weeks ago, EPIC again warned the Federal Trade Commission about unjustified access to commercial databases and questioned the adequacy of Choicepoint's auditing procedures ...