Reward offered in computer theft

Would you return a computer for $10,000 dollars when you knew you had the possiblity of selling the information you have for hundreds of thousands of dollars??

They should offer a lot more than $10,000! After all almost one and a half million are affected because of their negligence. They told me today "they take NO responsibility for this." I hope they have proven that their security measures are not trustworthy and I hope they go out of business.

ACS said it has notified hundreds of thousands of people about the theft but says authorities don’t believe the thief was after personal data.
WHY don’t they think the thief was after personal data?? If they feel this way, why did ACS send out letters warning of potential ID theft? Are we getting the full story here? I have a right to know!! I am really pissed off that I have to pay for credit monitoring and reports of my file. ACS should pay for this; it was their negligent security that allowed their computer to be stolen.

I was shocked when I received the letter stating that I might be subject to identity theft because of ACS. I was in their system due to a divorce in 1980 in Wyoming that involved two children. I never received any child support through the courts. I called and wrote to the Wyoming Child Support Agency many times asking for help with receiving child support from my ex. They never did a damn thing to help me! I finally released my ex from back child support about ten years ago so that he could keep his CDL license. By that time my boys were grown, and I just didn't have the energy to pursue his deliquent payments (over $42,000). Now I find out my information was sent to ACS -- why??? The divorce was 26 years ago, and the Wyoming Child Support Agency assures me the information on me in Wyoming is safe. The problem was they sent my information to ACS who "lost" it. I also believe that ACS should compensate everyone whose identity information is at risk. Maybe a class action lawsuit?

I beleive the State of Colorado should be responsible for sending our information to a private sector company. I started a new job June 1st and didn't know that the Dept of New Hires even existed, never mind that my employer was required to pass on my social security number and personal information. This is , I understand, so that Human Services can check for delinquent child support payers. This info should be available through the State Dept of Revenue without going through a private sector company.
Pat LaRue

I got one of these letters and questioned its legitimacy. Hence, threw it away. I guess we would all do well to check our credit reports often and regularly.

C'mon, the sole purpose of stealing this particular PC has to be what's on it...They now have access to where every dime of support paid into those accounts goes, as well as our info., and the info of everyone attached to our cases...Yes we should be looking into a class action against ACS, they aren't a government agency,and they're dragging their feet for some reason...My guess is that they know exactly who stole it and where it went...After all, it was a "secure facility", wasn't it?...

I also believe a law action would be ideal for this situation, expecially if our personal information is at risk!

I agree, a class action law suit should be done. I live in Texas and recieved a letter from ACS about the theft of a computer. After that, my bank account was raped for over $500.00. I had to close the account but now my credit is screwed. ACS is responsible for this. If anyone wants to start a Law suit, email me at warbringer65@yahoo.com and lets get this ball rolling

by thge way, the charges to my bank account were through a fly by nite credit card company that I have never heard of. They had all my info, acount # etc. I advise if you got a letter from ACS, close your bank accounts now before you get raped like I did

My son is now grown up, but for many years I had to deal with ACS/Family Support Registry. And they made my life miserable.

Let me stress that I always paid child support and was never delinquent. Still, they confiscated my tax returns and messed up my credit rating and made me suffer a million petty bureaucratic hassles. They are in a position where they hate their customers and have all the legal tools necessary to inflict pain on them. The more they hurt their customers, the better a job they're doing.

I had no choice as to whether to use their services, they are mandated by the courts. You can give your money to them, or go to jail, your choice.

Also, I am an IT professional. ACS claims that the machine was stolen from a secure facility, under camera surveillance, behind two key-carded doors.

Fine, but.... how did someone steal it?!? If someone's walking out your doors with a desktop computer, the facility is NOT secure, people. This wasn't a laptop you can hide under a coat, it was a desktop, weighing maybe 40 pounds, and requiring a cart to move it around.

And ACS says it was "password protected." So is just about every corporate PC, and that means exactly ZERO in terms of security. Note that they did NOT say "the data was on a securely triple-DES encrypted partition," which would have eased my mind. Nope, just a Windows password, which is utterly trivial to bypass.

I agree with the other posters in this forum, whoever stole it didn't want the box itself, worth a couple hundred bucks, they wanted the data, worth a fortune to identity thieves.

Fortunately these folks have left me so poor I have no credit to steal. But I feel sorry for the other 1.4 million people.

One other thing. I understand that this databse contained not just Family Support Registry clients but also every new hire in Colorado, male, female, married, divorced, straight, gay, with kids or not, with child support obligations or not.

Am I to understand that everyone who accepts a job in Colorado is assumed to be guilty of being a deadbeat dad, until proven innocent?

I was in their system, but if I was just some person with no child support obligations, I'd be hopping mad that these fascists think they have a right to my data.

Who else is the government giving this information to? Am I violating my Fifth Amendment rights just by filling out a job application?

Hi everyone. I should have done this search along time ago. I to recieved the letter. It does not just effect persons in Colorado. I am in Florida and they have my info too. This is how it was explained to me. Every employer has to submit information to the Department of Justice New Hires to check for Child support. For some reason the DOJ could not handle all the submissions, it was assigned to the State of Colorado to "manage", Colorado then outsourced the "job" to ACS. I have made countless phone calls to them to get this info. But, again, this is what I was told by ACS.

I agree with you all that this computer was stolen for the personal information. I'd bet my bottom dollar. Big big bucks for that info esp with the illegals!

Now, my concern for my family is that both me and my 7 yr old are on disability. What do you think happens when someone starts working under my number...yep our LEGAL benefits are STOPPED!

I also do not buy the "secure" room, the password..that's a laugh. They still have our information in order to contact us. Oh, forgot, that "possible" word of our information ...means it was on there. That's what they told me also.

I had started to work under a VR program so I had so many months before it affected our benefits.

I am NOT giving up on this. I agree that a class action law suit should be done. Heck with this "we are not liable" we all are educated and know better.

Best Wishes to all.

by law they have to inform you, about your information. Please check, ours was 'out there' and we found out there was only a window of time for you to legally respond that you got the letter. Aparently we needed to 'activate' their notification by a certain number of days or we forfieted any right to redress should our information be used (to get credit cards, bank accounts opened, loans ad nausea) Oh, and be aware we were advised not to give out the information stolen to others unless we iniated the call and Knew who we were speaking to. You probably know all this, and it may vary from state to state.

Lynn wrote:

C'mon, the sole purpose of stealing this particular PC has to be what's on it...They now have access to where every dime of support paid into those accounts goes, as well as our info., and the info of everyone attached to our cases...Yes we should be looking into a class action against ACS, they aren't a government agency,and they're dragging their feet for some reason...My guess is that they know exactly who stole it and where it went...After all, it was a "secure facility", wasn't it?...

A secure facility was Wells Fargo Bank...but the guys walked out with $17 M dollars!
You know that has to be an inside job...and I believe it's all about PI!!!

On the other hand...they could just connect with India and have all 300,000.000 Americans PI's.

I too received a letter from family support registry of New Hires by ACS in denver colorado. At first i didn't think anything of this letter but a month later it hit me...i hadnt received a child support payment since november 13, 2006 and then i re read the letter and informed my babys father i myself called and they refused to tell me any info about the personal stolen secured pc, all they told me was that they work for received payments for child support and therefore they told me that my name was not in their system...and i told them i was having a doubt that that might be the reason i had stopped receiving payments and i even told them i had accepted a debit card from wells fargo if that had to do anything and they said nothing. So they said that if anything my babys father had to contact them and send them copies from his work payroll check stubs in which they actually prove that child support has been deducted ever since. Now i understand that we all come from different backgrounds and situations, i am a single mother....struggling through to raise my 19 mth baby and my fear is having identity theft which would probably put me in a worse situation... my email is: vannii01@msn.com in case anyone might want to contact me for this matter. I've heard that child support is almost always ...messing up. san antonio, tx.

mayra, be careful giving out your email. Now you could get emails saying it is the attorney general (they do not send emails) asking for your social security to confirm, ahh they found you check or some lie to get more ID information from you, Report all such emails to the police and your email carrier. FAst! Not everyone on line can be trusted. You need to Contact your Post Office, see if mail is being sent somewhere else.

Be carefull no response to emails. Please!

There are even crooks out there that would pretend they are missing child support checks. There is no shame in them. Everyone needs to be carefull. NEVER give out information on the phone,(give me your social security number. You say no. then they try, OK your date of birth and the last four digets of your social. Found out your birthday is encoded in the first bit of your social security, then place of birth, so with the last few digits if they have some information it is nothing for them to get the entire social security number. All it takes is for you to answer a few questions. They work in teams so you can get the calls a spread apart. It is a big business.

Even childrens sS numbers can buy a house, car not that they intend to pay for them just get it, sell it. Run your credit in the ground, and who thinks to check a baby's credit rating?

I know thru the security department that is was a newer desktop PC being used as an FTP server. It had replaced a previous machine not too long before the theft. The PR group in Dallas spun it as being in a secure area protected by passwords and cameras, etc. BS. it was under a desk in a cube farm and the cleaning staff just file in under one person's access badge so there is no accountability.

I have about 2 dozen documented cases of ACS looking the other way to information security. Especially healthcare data.