Identity Theft Connected To Auto-Fill On Insurers’ Websites

The first sign of trouble was the arrival of envelopes from the New York State Department of Labor, all about my wife’s previous earnings and recent unemployment filing.

The second was the cheery ‘Welcome to Progressive’ package, telling her how great it was to have her with the company now that she had bought her new auto insurance policy. Except she hadn’t applied for insurance or unemployment.

And so we were off and running, learning about the ingenious ways that thieves outwit financial services companies and how a credit freeze doesn’t mean you’re frozen solid.

We even made a new friend, Shiran Pasternak, a software engineer who lives 30 miles away. His name was on the Progressive policy document, which listed him as the person who was supposedly going to pay the bill.

The blame rests with what now seems to have been an enormous security hole.