[update] State urges taxpayers to watch for identity theft in wake of misprint

["Dissent" <Dissent () pogowasright org>]

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=5887666

MILWAUKEE The state Department of Revenue today is urging taxpayers to
contact credit bureaus to guard against identity theft after
acknowledging late last week that Social Security numbers for
171-thousand taxpayers inadvertently ended up on mailing labels.

The department first notified people and post offices of the misprint
on Friday night, after it heard from people who had received the
mailings earlier in the day.

Department spokeswoman Meredith Helgerson says by this afternoon, some
54-thousand-500 undelivered booklets had been retrieved from post
offices in Portage, Madison and Oshkosh.

This means the remainder of the mailings _ now estimated at
171-thousand, up from 170-thousand _ were delivered in the past few
days.

She says the department provided a file to the printer with
confidential information such as names, addresses and Social Security
numbers, which has been done in years past, but this time the numbers
ended up on the labels.

The department said the name of the company was Ripon Community
Printers and they've were paid 22-thousand dollars for the service
this year.

Company president Andy Lyke says they're trying to figure out how the
numbers ended up on the labels and they regret the error.

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