Credit Bureau Security

The Feb. 16 article, “Fraud Ring Taps Into Credit Data,” concerning the theft of credit data from ChoicePoint Inc. was interesting because I and probably most others were unaware of the existence of this company. Though the article contains a box with information about the three better-known sources of such data, one apparently cannot obtain reports from ChoicePoint without first being accepted by the organization to receive them (unless you are a hacker). That is small consolation to those whose information has been compromised, and it frankly would not appear that going to one or more of the three recognized organizations would do any good, or at the least it would be expensive if you had already secured your annual free report.

It would seem that any organization that functions as a credit bureau should be licensed and regulated, and comply with the requirements for annual reports.

Donald Rapp

Lakewood