DMV Identity Theft Special Alert

A suburban Philadelphia town (Wilkes-Barre) department
of motor vehicles (dmv) office recently was the victim of
two stolen computers containing over 11,000 people's
confidential information.

Burgulars evidently broke into this DMV office last Tuesday
evening to steal the computers containing driver's license or
identification cards of customers whose photos had been
taken at this Wilkes-Barre center.

The highly sensitive information, in addition to the photos, stored on
the computers now listed as stolen included:

• Names
• Addresses
• Dates of birth (dob)
• Drivers license number
• Social Security Numbers (ssn)

With this type of information, criminals can easily produce fake
identification used to quickly conduct identity theft based
fraud such as opening new credit accounts with retailers who offer
"instant credit".

To the credit of the local DMV office, security breach letters were
mailed out this past Saturday offering free credit checks and
fraud alerts for your credit file.

So, our tip for today is for you or any associates you know may
have had their DMV photo taken during the timeframe of
Aug. 30th - Nov. 28th of this year.

Contact the DMV immediately to get further details on
the free credit check arrangements reserved for you. Also,
make sure to inquire with the local DMV office effected
(PennDOT Wilkes-Barre center) on getting a replacement
driver's license.

A toll-free hotline, 1-800-PENNDOT, has been setup to aid
the impacted identity theft victims.

Finally, because you are suffering from the loss of DMV data
(instead of just credit data), get your public information profile
(pip) checked out to guard against false arrest resulting from
fraudulent use of your personal information in traffic violations
or medical claims.