Police: ID fraud victims tied to Ancestry.com
Spokesperson Heather Erickson sent statement saying: "It's unfortunate to hear of this situation. Ancestry.com is very thoughtful when choosing what public records it hosts to ensure that only those with significant family history value are available for our members to search.
"We, as well as other genealogical websites, provide members with access to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) as it is a key record collection to help further family history research and it provides unique information about specific ancestors. The SSDI is made public by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and contains only records of deaths that were reported to the Social Security Administration or the Railroad Retirement Board. When narrowing down which of the hundreds of John Smith's is your ancestor, records like the Social Security Death Index are very important in helping match you to the correct person in your family tree.
"As there has been sensitivity around this record collection, we made a purposeful decision last year to not display Social Security numbers of any person that has passed away in the last 10 years. Additionally, we have placed the Social Security Death Index behind our paid wall to ensure that only dedicated family history researchers who have paid for an Ancestry.com subscription can access to this information."
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/police-id-fraud-victims-tied-ancestrycom/nLKQ3/
