By Matt Hines Story last modified Tue Feb 15 07:55:00 PST 2005
ChoicePoint confirmed Tuesday that criminals recently accessed its database of consumer records, potentially viewing the personal data of about 35,000 Californians and resulting in at least one case of identity fraud.
The Atlanta company, which provides consumer data services to insurance companies, other businesses and government agencies, said the unidentified individuals posed as legitimate businesspeople in order to breech its defenses . Chuck Jones, a company spokesman, said that roughly 50 fraudulent accounts were set up by the schemers, through which they could view the data of California residents.
News of the crime first surfaced when ChoicePoint sent an e-mail to individuals potentially affected by the attack last week. Among the data available through the company's services, and possibly accessed by the criminals, are consumers' names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit reports, Jones confirmed. However, he said it is nearly impossible to tell what information was viewed by the criminals.
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