The Social Security Numbers of an unknown quantity of Virginia landlords have been exposed to prying eyes via the United States Postal Service.
Landlords who received state-sponsored COVID-related rent relief were mailed 1099 tax statements of their receipts. Due to a production/design error on behalf of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community (DHCD), address windows on the received mailings revealed not only the name and address but also the Taxpayer Identification Number (Social Security Number in many cases) of the recipient.
In addition to potential viewing by any handling United States Postal Service (USPS) or DHCD employee, presumably, this information also was photographed and stored by the USPS under their “mail imaging” program.
Annotated image with redacted information:
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow when available.
UPDATE 3/26/2022 11:17 PM: DHCD admits to 11k+ exposed Social Security Numbers.
