A few weeks ago I filed a petition to initiate proceedings in Washington County, TN. As part of the process my petition had to be sent to all the involved parties. I have no problem with that. Unfortunately, the petition contains not only my full name and address, but my date of birth and social security number as well.
When I discovered this, I asked someone in the Clerk's office if my DOB and SSN could be removed from the petition before it was mailed out. She declined, stating "That's how we always do it. What's the problem?"
Seriously?
I asked for the supervisor, and, after explaining my concerns, was told the information would be removed from the copies that were mailed out, but not the original. That's fine. I guess I have to trust the Clerk not to misuse the information, right?
I later checked with one of the people who received the petition. He confirmed that the information had been crossed out, but it was still easily readable.
I'm livid.
One of the people who received the petition is, at this writing, sitting in a federal prison for identity theft (among other charges)! One of the recipients has also been involved in a separate case of identity theft that he facilitated with another party. One of the recipients is a known crack addict who doesn't have a job and lives off others.
I realize there's probably nothing I can do at this point except put a fraud alert on my credit reports. If anyone has any other advice I'd love to hear it.
Let this be a warning to others!
0 comments