While he governor of California is autographing cars as part of his state’s massive garage sale, his colleagues in West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming and Washington state are receiving mysterious HP and Compaq laptops in the mail, and are possible victims of identity theft.

The laptops sent to Vermont governor Jim Douglas were purchased with a credit card opened in his name, and other officials in the state have received similar suspicious shipments.

The National Governors Association has issued a bulletin about the suspicious shipments. It also said that Vermont’s laptops were paid for with a credit card issued in Douglas’ name – but that was not one actually held by the governor or issued by that state.

Officials in Washington and Wyoming said those computers had been purchased with credit cards whose account numbers did not match any issued by those states. West Virginia State Police Sgt. Mike T. Baylous declined to comment on how the laptops shipped there may have been paid for.

“The State Police and the FBI are working jointly to get to the bottom of why these computers were sent to West Virginia,” Baylous said Thursday.

Let’s hope that the states and FBI get to the bottom of this before the apparent criminals work their way up the alphabet.

State govs saying ‘No thanks’ to mystery laptops [AP]
FBI investigating laptops sent to US governors [Computerworld]

(Photo: The_WB)

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