Sacramento Gives Some Love To ID Thieves

If you're one of 445,000 Cal PERS members who recently received an informational brochure from the state's pension fund, you might wonder why that string of numbers on the envelope looks familiar:

Because it's your Social Security Number, which countless bureaucrats, postal workers, and anyone who might have handled your mail for you got to see -- along with your name and address. The AP reports:

The California Public Employees' Retirement System described last week's incident as a computer data error. All or a portion of Social Security numbers were inadvertently included on the address labels in a computer file given to staffers for the mailing, CalPERS spokeswoman Pat Macht said.

Oops, sorry all you pensioners. But hey, it's a great day for identity thieves!

Then there's this line:

CalPERS officials declined to say whether any disciplinary action was taken.

Natch. In government, none ever is. The best line, though, is:

"While it is unlikely that someone would recognize the series of numbers as being a Social Security number except you, we consider this a serious incident," the letter stated.

Sure, because no one knows what an SSN looks like. And besides, ID thieves don't read the news, right?