Here’s another one for the idiot box, people:
80,000 Mailers Sent Out With Recipients’ Social Security Numbers In Plain View
Universal American Action Network Says Printing Error To Blame
You knuckleheads at UAAN can blame your printers for the “error” all you want, but it wasn’t the printer that programmed the numbers to appear on the postcard!
Right on the front of the piece of mail, in plain view, is the recipient’s Social Security number. Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients may be at risk.
…Universal American told News 8 that the Social Security numbers were on the postcards because of a printing error. And Universal claims it immediately terminated its contract with the printing service.
“There’s no reason for it to be out for the public to see,” Delores said.
The big question is — how did this company get the Social Security numbers? Well, in many cases, Medicare account numbers are your Social Security number. Universal American said it will send a letter to those who received the postcards notifying them of this problem and offer to provide free credit monitoring for a year. In the meantime, anyone with any questions can contact Universal American at 1 (877) 697-6228.
The problem with these kinds of “errors” is that banks and companies take these things SO lightly. SO lightly. I’ve ranted before about the ridiculously low security measures at banking websites and their weak passwords encryptions; and here’s a story about a bank employee sending SSN and bank account information to the wrong email address here. RIDICULOUS!! Plus, there are all the numerous stories about banks and federal bureaus storing OUR information on THEIR laptops, and taking the laptops to coffee shops and zoos, where they are stolen.
DUHHHHHHHHH!!!
They treat our information– life changing information– so very, very lightly. When is it going to stop?! Plus, they should even be USING our SSNs for such things. You can’t even get motorhome insurance or check out a library book or get a grocery store shopping card without divulging your SSN!! It’s just criminal, how many dunderheads and dunderheaded companies have our sensitive information and account numbers. And we are supposed to just *trust* that they will take care of us?! My eye!
P.S. And all this is not even mentioning that the Social Security Numbers were never supposed to be counted as identification numbers! It’s so enraging.
