Machine malfunction causes SSN numbers of jobless to be exposed

A MALFUNCTIONING mail-sorting machine caused social security numbers of as many as 832 unemployment insurance customers to be misdirected and sent to the wrong employers or customers, the state Department of Labor and Training said.
A MALFUNCTIONING mail-sorting machine caused social security numbers of as many as 832 unemployment insurance customers to be misdirected and sent to the wrong employers or customers, the state Department of Labor and Training said.

CRANSTON – A malfunctioning mail-sorting machine caused social security numbers of as many as 832 unemployment insurance customers to be misdirected and sent to the wrong employers or customers.
The state Department of Labor and Training announced the problem on Tuesday, saying it regretted the error. It said it knows of 18 customers whose entire social security numbers were sent to the wrong employers. The risk applies only to those who filed a claim during the last week of June. Those who were affected were told about the problem in a July 17 letter.

DLT said it is offering free credit monitoring services for one year to all affected customers.

The unemployment insurance division mails a form known as the “employee separation report” and “notice of claim filed” to an employer when it receives an unemployment insurance claim from an individual who says he or she worked for that employer. (Some of those forms were the ones that were misdirected.)
The employer then fills out the form and returns it to DLT, verifying whether or not the claimant worked for the employer, for how long and the reason for the separation.
If the information from both the claimant and employer match, DLT opens a claim.
The division also mails a monetary determination letter to inform claimants whether or not they meet the wage requirements needed for compensation, what weekly and maximum benefit amounts they may receive, and the beginning and ending dates of their benefit year.

During the week of June 22-26, the optical scanner on the machine that sorts, inserts and seals mail malfunctioned, causing the machine to misdirect parts of mail in each envelope to other than the intended recipient.
As a result, the full and partial SSNs of the 832 UI claimants were mailed accidentally to the wrong companies or customers.
Once the problem was discovered, DLT had the mail machine serviced and repaired. It also has started requiring operators at the mailing facility to open and inspect random envelopes in the mail to ensure that each batch is being processed correctly.

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