I'm sure a bunch of you have seen this by now.
It started sometime between 4 and 6 years ago I think.
Notices being sent out from all sorts of banks, creditors, service providers, organizations and even county officials claiming they've been hacked (had a security breach) and therefore some of your personal information may have been exposed, followed by an offer of a couple years of complimentary enrollment in an identity-theft protection service.
It's almost the exact same notice every time, almost word-for-word.
The notices have the return address and letterheads/logos of the actual entity they're claiming to be.
It's very interesting.
Anyone figured out what's going on or seen any official reporting on this?
I have hypotheses on what the agenda/scam is but I don't want to pollute anyone else's assessment with my own.
My theory is that it's a "legal" way to ensure everyone has your data, so if someone who shouldn't have it ends up with it they can claim it was part of such and such leak.
I recall over a decade ago stories used to be about how someone with sensitive data forgot their laptop on some public transportation and now it's missing. Or even earlier than that with briefcases.
It gives them an alibi for criminal organizations having that to scam and also allows companies like google to know even more about you.