Federal prosecutors recently announced that certain social security administration personnel stole confidential information on 11,000 people from the government database and sold it to a credit card fraud ring.
Investigations are still ongoing even though authorities have arrested some individuals in the ring.
This is the first known widespread security breach in the SSA database. The confidential information was used by the ring to procure and activate credit card accounts which were then used for unauthorized charges. The Government estimates losses to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The National Fraud Information Center wants to remind consumers that they should always check their credit card bills for unauthorized charges. Even if you have kept your financial information private, it is still possible to be the victim of fraud.