17,000 Katrina Evacuees Exposed to Identity Theft by FEMA

Katrina victims and evacuees have one more thing to worry about these days–identity theft.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported recently that personal information and private details of almost 17,000 evacuees was on-line and public on two web sites. It is unclear how long this data was accessible, but FEMA is definitely not taking this situation lightly.

Most of the affected individuals were those who lived in Louisiana at the time of the historic storm, and with many of them spread around the country, FEMA is unsure how to contact all those who may become victim to fraudulent use of their personal information.

FEMA is providing a year and a half’s worth of credit monitoring services, and will take any steps necessary to help with fraud resolution and identity theft protection.

After all these people went through it is unbearable to think that the agency responsible for this emergency may have exposed them to identity theft and that these people could have another tragedy to deal with. We highly advise those affected to place a fraud alert on their credit file or have an identity theft protection service do so on their behalf. This may stop the identity theft before it happens as opposed to being notified after the fact and having to clear your good name at that point.

In our opinion, FEMA should have provided both fraud alerts and credit monitoring from the beginning. These evacuees have dealt with more life altering circumstances than anyone should have to in a life time. Credit monitoring is only going to tell them that their credit file has been altered by an identity thief. They then have to repair the damage. Evacuees are still dealing with a ton of issues and probably don’t have the time to deal with such a situation.

A fraud alert may not prevent every identity theft attempt but it will prevent most. These 17,000 citizens should not have to pay for FEMA’s error. FEMA should have hired a fraud alert company to protect those affected as well.