SS SNAFU

Do you take steps to prevent your identity from being stolen?

Do you guard your Social Security number? Or, do you plaster it on the outside of items you send through the mail?

Chances are you would never do anything as stupid as putting your SS number on an envelope and drop it in the mail.

If you're one of the THOUSANDS of unlucky ones in Wisconsin, all your efforts may be for naught.

Madison -- Up to 5,000 taxpayers received letters recently that may have shown their Social Security numbers through the address window, the state announced today.

The Department of Administration printed, folded and mailed the letters for the state Department of Revenue. The federal government requires that the Social Security numbers be printed on the forms.

Everyone affected was offered free credit monitoring in a letter sent Monday.

The error affects taxpayers in 10 communities in northeastern Wisconsin.

It would [be] the second such error this month and the third in just over a year.

In late 2006, about 170,000 taxpayers were sent tax forms with their Social Security numbers on the mailing labels. Earlier this month, a state mailing to 260,000 Medicaid recipients also had their Social Security numbers printed on the mailing labels.

Bottom line: Taxpayers should NOT have to worry that the government they fund is going to expose them to identity theft.

These errors out of Jim Doyle's Madison are inexcusable.

They are major foul-ups, utter incompetence.