Was the notice sent through U.S. Mail, or was it an email? My first concern would be that this is a scam designed to get you to click on some link and input your credit card data supposedly to "protect" it, but what you'd really be doing is putting it into a thief's website. If you have not done so yet, call Countrywide and verify that this is actually something which has occurred. Do not click on any links in email messages you may have received, and do not call the numbers written on the notice you got. Call Countrywide at a customer service number printed on your statement or somewhere else that you can be sure that you're really calling them and not someone else. My concern arises from the fact that, if this did occur, I would think they would suggest a very definite course of action, and would assign someone to work with you on it. I do not think an acceptable solution would be to offer you free "credit watch" protection when one of their own employees has stolen your personal data.

If you find that this really did occur, go to Annualcreditreport.com (link below) and pull your three credit reports right away. Contact your credit card issuers and advise them of what has happened; they will probably cancel your current cards and issue new ones with new numbers. In addition, save all correspondence related to this in case legal action is required later.

Here is a link that might be useful: AnnualCreditReport.com

Thanks to everyone. I spoke with someone at Countrywide and this is definitely legit, not a phishing scam. The guy said they have not yet had any reports that anyone's info was given out, but doing it as a precautionary measure. I did put a fraud alert out with the three major credit bureau's and signed up for the credit watch. So far, nothing looks amiss on my account. It's unbelievable how prevalent credit card fraud has become. Very scary.
Thanks everyone,
Erin

If no one's info was given out, then what did they mean by telling you that your SSN and credit card numbers were sold to a theft ring? Wouldn't selling your personal information to a theft ring constitute "giving it out"?

sorry, what I meant was, this guy had access to this info and had intent to give it out, they just aren't sure if he did or if they got him in time. I asked if any of us who got the letter have called in to report suspicious activity, and he said, "not yet"...we'll see. they could just be trying to CYA...

I have countrywide and haven't heard of that.

I have countrywide also and havent heard anything. Thats scary though.

I USED to have Countrywide, last year, for one year, but have not gotten that letter.

cowboyind:
thanks for the tip on AnnualCreditReport.com.

Someone gained access to my Discover Account online and changed my home mailing address as my email address. I received notification via email about the email address change. I contacted Discover immediately and canceled my cards and issue new ones.
No charges were made to my account.

Also, I pulled the credit reports as you recommended, nothing new there either. I'm still going to place a fraud alert as well.

-jasper

Do you ever notice how some spammers reply to thread that are several years old.

It makes me wonder if they are capable of reading.

My husbands information was compromised somewhere and he became a victim of identity theft. He nows has credit line alerts since someone opened a Bill me Later account in his name using all his information to do so. That way no one else can open any type of credit line in his name.

What they also do is sell your information including credit account numbers and it could be a long time before you see it getting used. Our third one was fraudulently used yesterday. This happened to one card a year ago, another one in December, and now this one. MY husband watches all accounts daily so we have been able to stop them quickly. We do have alerts on each card that notifys us if there is a charge over a certain dollar amount. We have four accounts but only use one all the time and never have balances. There is a notice that we are to be notified if anything is put on the charge cards we seldom use. He uses them for rewards. We are now cancelling the only one that has not been stolen.

This whole ordeal has been very stressful and frustrating. We are working with our Sherriff department on the December incident but getting him to call back has been fruitless.

If you happen to notice a charge on your statement to a site called rebatesoft, cancel your card. This is a place where people test the stolen cards to see if they can be used fraudulently. If it goes through, they move on to bigger and better things.