The California Department of Motor Vehicles (CA DMV) has stopped sending Californians’ driver information over to a Seattle, Washington, base third party data processing company called Automatic Funds Transfer Services, Inc. (AFTS).

CA DMV’s decision came about after hackers successfully launched a ransomware attack onto AFTS' system during the early part of February that impacted Californians whose data CA DMV provided, in the last 20 months, to AFTS.

CA DMV has contacted the law on the state and federal, Federal Bureau of Investigation, side in order to let them know what is going on.

Just so y’all know, nobody is saying that information like Social Security numbers and date of births that a person can use to get a credit card and or loans in somebody’s name was stolen.

However, they are saying that information was stolen that a person can use in order to get another person’s Social Security number and or date of birth in order to get a credit card and or a loan in that person’s name.

The names, addresses, license plate numbers, and vehicle identification numbers (VINS) were the information that was stolen that a thief can use in order to get the information the thief needs to get credit cards and or loans in several people’s names.

And everybody knows that a name and an address is all a mediocre criminal needs in order to get a partial Social Security number to match up with a full date of birth so that he or she can use the information to get money into his or her bank account.

Here’s what CA DMV Director Steve Gordon said in a statement, “Data privacy is a top priority for the DMV. We are investigating this recent data breach of a DMV vendor in order to quickly provide clarity on how it may impact Californians. We are looking at additional measures to implement to bolster security to protect information held by the DMV and companies that we contract with.”

The only problem with all of that is the CA DMV folks know how it’s going to “impact Californians” because their names and addresses are in the hands of hackers who will undoubtedly use their names and addresses in order to get their Social Security numbers and or birthdates so that they can open up credit cards or get loans in their names or, worse yet, sell their information to a data firm.

Hm, if that ain’t something. A data company gets hacked and the information is used in order to build up more profitable profiles that are then sold to data firms.

Yup, it’s looking like what it’s looking like. And what it’s looking like is a financial crime whereby hackers stole Californians’ data so they could sell it to the highest bidder.

Big data is a multi-billion dollar business. Therefore, it is not far fetch to believe that hackers would launch a ransomware attack against a third rate third party company in order to steal their data.

Folks, it’s true. AFTS doesn’t have a good reputation. Based on AFTS’ yelp reviews, AFTS is more rotten than a sewer egg.

A person by the name of Matt S. from Eastbound, Washington, wrote back on July 12, 2016, “Avoid AFT’s. Horrible customer service. Rude and back talking. They also get sassy when you ask questions. If you don’t like your job then quit, don’t take it out on customers.”

Following up on the whole "rude" and "sassy" theme, Roberta M. from Tacoma, Washington decided to use her First Amendment right, on July 4, 2019, to express her dissatisfaction with AFTS. Roberta M. wrote, “this business is a joke, they are rude and idont thinkthey know whats going on with their loans…If I could give them a zero for customer service I would. rude and sassy people who never call back their messages, don’t explain anything and are in a hurry to get you off the phone!”

And just to add a double scoop of number two fudge onto this “fudge cake,” AFTS' website was down on Thursday, February 18, 2021, around 1:30PM Eastern Time.

“The website for AFTS and all related payment processing website are unavailable due to technical issues. We are working on restoring them as quickly as possible,” is what was on the screen of AFTS’ website.

A person with a little bit of sense would ask, “Why is the website of a data processing company that was hit by a ransomware attack in early February down?!” Mm-hmm, it is suspect in and of itself. It makes a person wonder, “What’s going on over there?!”

And what’s going on over there is something that ain’t right. Just think about it for a moment, folks. Y’all have come across people like the ones Matt S. and Robert M. describe at AFTS. After doing some research of your own, you find out that those folks were “rude,” “sassy,” and in a rush to get you away from them because they were doing something they didn’t want you to know about.

The sadness about all of this is that the CA DMV folks should have known not to contract out to AFTS. It’s not like there weren’t any warning signs about AFTS “shady” ways. All the CA DMV folks had to do was Google AFTS and the bad reviews would’ve popped right up.

Mind you, folks, these aren’t paid reviews. These are actual reviews from actual human beings. Hence, organic reviews dating all the way back to the year 2019 which is when CA DMV contracted out to AFTS.

The good news is that CA DMV’s termination of its relationship with AFTS is a sign that CA DMV is at least trying to do right by Californians.

The bad news is it’s no telling how much of Californians data AFTS may have sold to hackers and or big data firms before CA DMV terminated its relationship with the “shady” data processing company.

Unfortunately for AFTS, no good will be coming towards their way. The bad yelp reviews, the hackers’ successful ransomware attack, and the website being down is enough for local law enforcement and the FBI to also look into what is increasingly looking like some shady criminal business going on over there at AFTS.