AAA uses Unsecure Credit Reporting from Choice Point Services! Choice Point keeps getting hacked and losing 100,000+ individual personal files that included social security numbers and credit card information! Now Im in the dreaded choice point database!
Up until this point I have been a strong believer in AAA as an insurance company. However today I had received a major let down. I have learned that AAA is utilizing the most unsecured reporting agency in the industry. The scariest part is that I actually have a file on hand at ChoicePoint! Please read below. I am going to write about my experiences as they happen hopefully I can somehow or another remove myself from the dreaded company that cant seem to get a grasp on security practices.
I recently applied for a new insurance policy through AAA for my Mini Cooper. All went fine and I have my new car insured. However through my AAA insurance I was also offered Renters Insurance. This in turn would give me a discount on my car insurance. Too my surprise I received a letter that I am either being declined my renters insurance or having it restricted. The letter appears to be a standard credit check and it came back declined. Copy of the letter is below.
Now this would not come to me as a surprise at all if I had bad/poor credit. However my credit reports from all three major Credit Reporting Agencies are clean and clear. I did just buy a new 2009 Mini Cooper after all 
and a brand new 2009 Nissan Versa . Damn I love Mini!
Ok now to find out about this Choice Point Services company claiming to be a Credit Report Agency. I have previously heard of a Choice Point Services however I was xing my fingers that it wasnt the company that is the laughing joke in all of the IT security professionals. This letter scared the crap out of me especially seeing that I am in the IT security field and have actually joked about ChoicePoint being hacked and loosing 100k+ worth of private information. Anyways, I called the number on the letter to figure out how to get a copy of my credit report. However it is late and I received the automated computerized prompts. I went through the system and I was informed that I can do it over the phone. The Wonderful Choice Point Services computerized operator told me it would only be 8 min to complete the process. I started going through the process and it asked for my Social Security Number. At that point I stopped. I don’t know if this is the company I had joked about and I am certainly not providing my Social Security Number to go into their computerized database. At this point I was notified that I can send the request through the Choice Point Services Website.
The URL I was given over the phone for the website is consumerdisclosure.com
I fired up firefox and headed directly to the website and check it out. It was a damn surprise I hit a SSL security alert. If you want to see it for yourself click the link above or See Pic below
Now wouldn’t you think that a company handling sensitive material would be able to properly install and use a website SSL security certificate! Not Choice Point Services I guess. If you look close at the error it shows that the certificate is for a completely different website.
www.choicetrust.com
Lets head over to that site and see what its about. Now it shows that we are on a choice point website and that it is owned by Lexis Nexis. We can now do a check on both site using nslookup to see who owns the domains/website.
Both domains show
This now tells me that Choice Point Asset Company is the owner and Lexis Nexis is only an Administrator. My worst nightmare has just happened! I am in the ChoicePoint insecure system! I also thought Lexis Nexis owned Choice Point! Dang this company is all over the place.
I decided to dig up some more information on Choice Point. Holy crap they are a deceptive company that has more that has had several major security leaks of personal information that where above and beyond what I had even heard of.
I dont want any of my information ever held with them! Damnit! They already have me!
Check out the wikipedia article on Choice Point Services! I posted a couple of big things below. But dang this is a bad company! Please look at the wiki on ChoicePoint Services!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChoicePoint
Maintains more than 17 billion records of individuals and businesses, which it sells to an estimated 100,000 clients, including 7,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
In January 2000, the ChoicePoint Services came under fire for misusing private data from government sources.
The State of Pennsylvania terminated a contract with ChoicePoint, alleging that the firm had illegally sold citizens’ personal information to unauthorized individuals.
The company was once again in the media spotlight in 2005 following a security breach at ChoicePoint when identity thieves stole the personal data of at least 163,000 Americans.[2]
Ok now I know its the real Choice Point Services company that has had several major security issues. It is very scary as a consumer that I personally ran into a major security issue and a lot of misinformation just from looking around on the internet for a few minutes. I am now curious to what they have on file for me.
I will keep everyone up to date as my adventure progresses. I am going to bite my lip and request my information. As far as AAA insurance goes please feel free to contact them and tell them how you feel about sharing your insurance information with a company like ChoicePoint.
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I thank you for this article. I was just reviewing credit card bills, and guess what? There is a charge from choicepoint svces. I did not know what this was. $39.50 perhaps to check credit?
What can I do now?
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