No News Is Good News | Rhode Island | Identity Theft & SNAP Fraud

Things are going well if you haven’t actually received a letter in the mail from the State of Rhode Island, which began mailing letters in January 2025 to alert some unfortunate individuals that hackers had gained access to RIBridges, the state’s online portal for obtaining social services – such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid benefits, as well as health insurance through the state’s marketplace for coverage, HealthSource RI. Basically, anyone who has applied for or received social services over the last eight years in Rhode Island needs to contend with potential stolen identity issues.

Rhode Island’s Office of Health and Human Services each year serves more than 300,000 Rhode Islanders, including adults, children, senior citizens, and individuals with disabilities and veterans. Officials estimate the information of 657,000 people was illegally accessed in the attack. But the state sent letters to 709,000 individuals, as some people in the database are cared for by relatives or other people.

Hackers began releasing the information that they had stolen onto a leak site in late December 2024, and officials have been analyzing the data to confirm what type of information was posted. Unfortunately, the data included names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, health information and banking information.

State officials said they are confident the security threat has been remediated, based on the third-party forensics report. However, the auditors are still reviewing information that was impacted by the hack and it is likely more victims of the hack will be identified. If additional people are identified, they will also get copies of the letter. 

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “RI offers 5 years of credit monitoring to those affected by data breach” published by WPRI News on January 10, 2025.

Rhode Islanders are being advised to keep an eye on their mail as the state continues to recover from a massive cyberattack. Gov. Dan McKee announced Friday that more than 700,000 letters are going out to those whose personal data may have been compromised.

The letters, which are being mailed by Experian, will have the state seal in the top-left corner and include a code to access five years of free credit monitoring .An estimated 657,000 Rhode Islanders are potentially affected by the hack, but McKee said parents and guardians may receive letters for other members of their household. Minors who may be impacted will receive separate access codes, according to the governor.