ACTIVE OUTDOORS - SCAM???
General Topic
Today I received a letter from [[ "Active Outdoors" (processing Center) P.O. Box 141578, Austin Texas 78714 ]]
NOTICE OF DATA BREACH
States that Active Outdoors operates the online application that I've used to purchase or apply for hunting and/or fishing licenses in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
They want to protect my information and operate with transparency. Hmmmmmmmm, OK
It's a full page letter then at the very bottom it says
..."Because your social security number was potentially accessed, we are offering a service of credit monitoring and a $1 million identity theft insurance policy. To use this service, you will need to provide your personal information to ALLClear ID." they then give a web page for me to sign up.
Just wondering if anyone else has received this fraud / scam.
I'm assuming they pulled my name and address the same way the guiding services do?
I can't tell you if that's specifically a scam or not. But I can tell you that I was subject to the Chinese based hack of the US OPM.
AllClearID is who the government used for ID monitoring as a result. Same deal.
It's simple really.....
Don't EVER put personal or financial information in cyberspace. It's not a matter of if you get hacked/scammed, but when.
I don't trust any of them. Ever.
Got the same letter and I don't believe it's a scam. They actually lost our complete personal data to hacking, and are probably legally obligated to notify us. Affects fish & game accounts you may have set up in OR, ID, and WA prior to 2007.
Once again it points out the high risk we run with these G&F depts/contractors who "must have" our Social Security number!
sticksender - did you respond? What did you do?
At some point, I might take advantage of their offer of a credit monitoring service. They're giving us 2 years to enroll. The theft of our SS#'s is the most worrisome. Thing about all this is, here's one incident, with one vendor, that we know about....but you have to wonder how many other data thefts never get discovered?
I'm assuming you have followed this up with a couple phone calls as opposed to simply believing a letter from a compromised company?
things like this are a fact of the world we live in today. Everything is automated and on line, so it's exposed to a "good" hacker.
Woods I'm sorry to break it to you - unless you don't use a bank your data is in cyberspace as most banks are using clouds, etc.
The trick is to only use reputable sites and financial institutions like PayPal, etc.
For info like that I would never use a company who I am not familiar with - i.e. Bass Pro, Cabellas, etc. are on the OK list but not Bobs Listing service who I don't know or never met.
"Don't EVER put personal or financial information in cyberspace. It's not a matter of if you get hacked/scammed, but when."
Great the draw odds for western states will really improve if everyone does that! Because ya can't trust snail mail either. All hand delivery from here on in!
I received the same letter. The only thing I can figure is I purchased a license in Idaho in 04 and 05. I cant remember if I gave my soc. # or not. The license wasnt purchased online but through the outfitter.
I don't anymore. I was hacked...never again.
And any "reputable" site is only that UNTIL IT'S HACKED!! Or to put it another way...the only difference between a reputable and an unreputable site is that the reputable site hasn't been hacked....yet.
At least if you catch or accost a thief in the act of robbing you, you can shoot him. You can't shoot cyberspace.
Only account to ever get hacked was my Cabellas account and they tried to buy a gift card. Pinged my email and got it stopped in a few minutes.
I'm not a regular here but I received the same letter from Active Outdoors today. I was searching on the web to see if it was some sort of scam. The letter looks convincing except for the fact that I haven't purchased any license since 2001, that was the last year I hunted with my dad. What's more I never used on online service to purchase any hunting/fishing license. When I did hunt I purchased licenses through my local sporting goods store. If I'm being asked to provide my personal info to a third party, AllClear ID, it smells to my like a fishing scam. What are your thoughts?
"...I'm being asked to provide my personal info to a third party..."
Then...IT'S A SCAM!!
Not a scam.
Shandi Martinez of Huntin' Fool just broadcast an email to the entire membership yesterday, covering the Active Outdoors data breach.
Unfortunately, it's very real. And becoming much too common!
I received this letter from them several days ago and I immediately thought it was a scam. 1st it stated that it only affected Idaho, Oregon and Washington prior to 2006. I've never hunted or fished in any of those states. the 2nd thing I thought was odd was the letter was addressed to me, but sent to my parents house, which we just built and they just moved to a few months ago (after having lived in their prior home for 40+ years). I've never lived there and I don't even know their address. Great, I guess I need to look into this.
I just received this letter but I am the only one in my family that received one. At first I was thinking I have never purchased a hunting license, but then I realized that I did purchase a fishing license in a sporting goods store one time(never done online), but my husband and boys also purchased licenses and they have not received a letter as of yet. Did I have to give my ss# to get a Washington State fishing license? I don't remember. And I don't remember providing my boy's ss#.
My husband got this same letter addressed to someone else today at his business office.
So obviously the letters were just recently dropped in our area, just concerned that I was the only one in my family that received one.
From what I have seen around the internet and sticksender's comment here it seems legitimate.
And yes it is getting more and more common, heck I don't have to pay for monitoring since it seems like I regularly get notifications from various hacked locations, like I think right now Target Stores are paying for my monitoring. Seems like I also got a notification from Home Depot. These businesses don't have my ss#, but they gave me free monitoring services which do monitor everything. And it doesn't have to be online or store purchases. My son's doctors office was hacked into some years ago and we had protection for his ss# for a number of years. With so many medical records in the cloud now, there are lots of places for hackers to strike.
It's not a scam. I signed up for the free credit monitoring.
That's why these criminals keep doing this, because they continue to sucker people into putting their personal information into cyberspace.
You may as well throw it out the window.
WHO defines what's "safe"?? Someone you never heard of? Yeah right.
Got one today, will Call Oregon tomorrow and follow up as it is a state out of the three, I applied for...
I got one also and I know it is fraudulent. The first sentence says that I used ACTIVEOutdoors online application to purchase a hunting or fishing license, and I never have! They are using deceptive tactics to get people to register for AllClear ID and I would NOT trust them!
OutdoorCentral, who's software you likely used to purchase a license(s), is owned by Active Outdoors.
I got the letter as well. Just hunted in Idaho last spring. Haven't done anything with the info sent.
Darrall Dougherty
From ODFW today, "yes it's real, not a scam!"...No financial info, but personal info compromised...
A five minute call to any of the fish and game departments can confirm the letter. I swear this is the biggest bunch of tech ignorant blow hards gathered in one place you will ever find.
Do yourself a favor and take the free subscription.
received thew letter today myself. will be speaking with some folks here on the issue and move forward accordingly.
Do you guys have the contact info? I thought it was junk mail and tossed it.
I better check the mail pile
