Collection Agency's Server Stolen; Had 700,000 Accounts On It [Identity Theft]

Indiana broke its own record for computer security breaches last month, when a server containing personal data on 700,000 people was stolen from the offices of Central Collection Bureau, a debt collection agency. The stolen data included names, personal billing information, last known addresses, and social security numbers of people who hold delinquent accounts with a variety of companies, including utilities and hospitals. The company said the server was behind "three locked doors" and "was protected by two passwords, but was not encrypted."

A lot of the data is old and potentially of little value—one hospital says the accounts it passed to the agency were all at least three years old or older. On the other hand, a gas company said that because it only had last known addresses on the accounts it handed over, it actually had no way of contacting the victims to alert them to the theft.

The agency president told the IndyStar, "We're obviously heartsick about this. We've been in business since 1972, and nothing like this has ever happened before." Responses from companies who had passed their customers over to the agency, however, varied from taking it seriously to regretting any inconvenience. We suspect they're not feeling too much concern for their non-paying clients.

Why Is Progressive Using "Recent Military Service" To Determine Rates And Eligibility? [Auto Insurance]

We got this email tonight from Ceaser, who wants to know why his military service would negatively affect his car insurance:

While searching for new car insurance on progressive and sadly other insurance carriers, figuring what the rate check would be I answered a few questions. Some questions asked were if I was currently in the military and in college, I am both. As an Iraq war Army vet I am currently going to school with the GI bill, and tuition assistance from the Air national guard, so I put that I am both a student and national guard.

Well before I used to call and verify information and just to see if anything was available if there was any sort of military discount available. As always I get told that the prices were low enough that not to require a discount, or that military discounts weren't available from the company, as in Progressive. Geico does give a military discount but their rates are so jacked up that there really isn't a discount, actually $300+ w/ military discount over my progressive, state farm, and sad to say allstate. Anyhow I come to the final page and in the fine print I see this:
 

Your rate may vary, or you may not be offered a quote, due to eligibility requirements (you may not qualify for that program), credit history, recent military service , or driving record (if your actual record is different than what you told us). If you have been assigned to your recent automobile insurance policy by the state, or if any of the drivers you listed requires proof of financial responsibility, your rate may be higher than those provided by this comparison service. [emphasis ours -Editor]

Now my question is this. With news that 1 in 5 soldiers coming back from Iraq have mental, health, PTSD issues, not to mention the suicide rate climbing among periods of deployments. Long term deployments having stress issues and coping when coming back. Could these news be used to proclaim that Military might be a higher risk therefore lets bend you over and take your money? I hope not but then again most of these companies don't care other than the bottom line. Any insight or help would greatly be appreciated.

Sprint Customer's Number Gets Ported Without Authorization; Email To Executives Gets It Back [Happy Endings]

Robb spent almost two and half hours with Sprint CSRs trying to find out why his phone had stopped working, and eventually he was told that it had been ported to AT&T, and that it would "take 4-5 days to try and get this number back if at all." Fortunately, he was able to send the following email directly to their executives and got the matter cleared up the next day.

Imagine my surprise today when I was unable to contact my pregnant wife utilizing my Sprint cell phone.
 
I immediately called customer service when unable to make calls and spent a total of 145 minutes trying to resolve the problem. Along the way my call was misrouted to the wrong billing system (whatever that means), I was transferred to afterhours numbers, I was hung up on, I talked to three reps who had no grasp of the English language and one who insisted it was an equipment issue even when I told her it had been established that somehow my number had been ported without my consent or confirmation. You can only guess how much fun it is to have someone demand to troubleshoot an problem when it had already been done and demands to do it all over again only to have your call routed the wrong way again. Imagine being recently unemployed leaving applications for work across the last week with a number which is suddenly "dead". Better yet imagine the problem if my wife went into labor or had an accident and had no way of contacting me because for 4 hours my phone was dead except for some random California number was assigned to my account (I live in Oregon).
 
After I was finally handed off to Operator #77303 she did some checking, my number had been indeed ported out to AT&T to no one in particular it was just there. She informed me that not only would it take 4-5 days to try and get this number back if at all. She wouldn't even try and answer me when I asked what would happen if AT&T was to use my number. She gave me a "temporary" number which would be great except for the potential job prospects which no longer have my number.
 
The fact this can happen at no worse time seems to be my luck, the fact my contract was just renewed is ironic as I had read Mr. Hesse was going to turn things around and make Sprint a company that takes care of business- I actually believed what I read.
 
The fact that my number could be taken away in an instant but won't return for a week (if even at all) is disturbing. I would appreciate it if someone would contact me and restore my faith in my decision to remain solely a Sprint customer and hopefully return my limbo ported number back to me safe and sound. It's not the end of the world but when all the events fall into place like they have for me it falls very close.
 
Thank you for your time Robert

Well this morning I was contacted by the executive office and basically within the hour my old number was back and functioning. They had no clue why it had been ported other than possibly someone entered another number wrong. If it wasn't for my executive email contacts gleaned from you site I would probably be still waiting days later. Your site has made me a happy man, I can only hope someone else with similar problems is helped down the line to cut through the red tape!
 
Many Thanks! Robert

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