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Sorry if this has already been done but as I am sure everyone in the UK is aware, the Government has admitted that they are missing some discs with peoples names, DOB's, bank details, address, childrens DOB's etc. I have been sent a letter today advising me that I am 1 of the 25,000 whose details have gone astray.

The letter goes on to say that if anyone commits identity fraud in my name I will get a refund, how reassuring eh!!! :mad:

Just so we can all read what it says I've stolen the letter that the government sent to Suzy, here it is:Dear Suzy,

re: Child Benefit customer update

I am writing to make a personal apology.

A copy of some HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data about families, including yours, who have received Child Benefit has been lost. The copy of the data is likely to still be on Government property. The police are now conducting a search, and there is no evidence that it is in the possession of anyone else. This will not affect your Child Benefit payments.

This data includes your and your children's names and dates of birth, your address, your National Insurance number and, where relevant, the details of the bank or building society account into which your Child Benefit is or was paid. If you are paid through a bank or building society, they are aware of this matter. They are acting on this information, and assure us that they have appropriate safeguards in place to protect you.

As is usual in these circumstances, if you are the innocent victim of banking fraud you will not have to pay, but you may want to take some precautionary steps to protect yourself. If you receive bills, invoices or receipts or see entries in your statements for goods or services which you have not ordered you should contact your bank or building society immediately. In addition, do not give out personal or account details if anyone contacts you unexpectedly. Instead take a note of their name and number, and if you are at all suspicious contact your bank or building society.

If your password uses any of your personal data, for example your child's name or date of birth, you may also wish to consider changing any passwords you use. The advice of banks is there is no need for customers to ask for a new account or to contact their bank or building society.

Your Child Benefit payments will continue to be paid as before and you do not need to contact HMRC. However if you experience any problems, in the receipt of your Child Benefit payments, please contact HMRC on 0845 302 1444 between 8am and 8pm on any day of the week (closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day).

I would like to offer my personal apologies for any worry or concern this data loss may cause you. And I can assure you that all efforts are being made to ensure that such a loss can never happen again.

Dave HartnettThe discs aren't likely to have reached any criminals, I'd have thought, but the ease with which people working within official agencies can get hold of those bits of information about a person makes it immaterial really. The fact that it's stored in the way it's stored makes it childishly easy for a large set of people to take it and pass it on whenever they feel inclined.

:wah::wah: Well done Spot and there was me feeling all special that I was 1 of 25,000 to receive that letter when in fact everyone can see what was sent to me!!!

As if it wasn't bad enough that everyone has my vital statistics now they can read my post too

Yeah.. I got that same letter today....

although - I'm not too worried as I never have anythng in the bank anyway... so they'd be wasting their time on me! :wah:

summerishere;726421 wrote: Yeah.. I got that same letter today....

although - I'm not too worried as I never have anythng in the bank anyway... so they'd be wasting their time on me! :wah:


:wah: I think what is more worrying is if they try to get credit in your name, mind you with me they'd be taking debt instead of gaining credit!

SuzyB;726424 wrote: :wah: I think what is more worrying is if they try to get credit in your name, mind you with me they'd be taking debt instead of gaining credit!


:wah:same here....

when I made a will - it was all about who I was leaving my debts to.

No-one seems to want them.... :-3

summerishere;726430 wrote: :wah:same here....

when I made a will - it was all about who I was leaving my debts to.

No-one seems to want them.... :-3


That is something that I need to do, I am useless like that

I got this letter yesterday as well, hardly personal is it as it says when we all have one.

Weeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Wooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!



No, more taxes, no more income tax, no more tags on your car, no more getting older.

Eh what Robin?

The letters even had CB number and NI number on the top, how stupid are they!

spot;726418 wrote:

The discs aren't likely to have reached any criminals, I'd have thought, but the ease with which people working within official agencies can get hold of those bits of information about a person makes it immaterial really. The fact that it's stored in the way it's stored makes it childishly easy for a large set of people to take it and pass it on whenever they feel inclined.


So how childishly easy is it to get this data and what would you call a large set of people?

I'd guess there's a minimum of a hundred operations staff in Newcastle who could walk out with that on a USB stick tomorrow without leaving a trace that they'd done it. I was responsible for designing the operations security protocols at a largeish London financial house in my time. Some things you can protect but the master datafiles you really honestly can't. Even if you key-capture all the operations terminals, are you really going to pay for enough staff to regularly read them? It's bad enough getting them to log in with their own identities half the time much less to log out when they take a break. That means you need security cameras pointing at all the chairs all the time as well. It doesn't happen. If you manage to protect the live database you can't protect the archives from the archivists.

In terms of lookups on individuals I'd guess there's over fifty thousand people in the country who could take that tomorrow as well, though their access would at least be logged. As far as the rest of us go it's a matter of slipping a hundred quid to one of those in a pub round the corner.