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Residents in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and three U-S territories have been affected by criminals gaining access to ChoicePoint's database.

The smallest number of possible victims is 2 in the U.S. Virgin Islands with the largest number being 34,114 in California.

The company says it is almost done notifying by mail the 144,778 people that it claims could possibly be affected. Authorities in California, however, believe the number to be much higher at as many as 500,000.

"All I can tell you is our number is roughly 145,000, and we know that we're over-notifying," said ChoicePoint marketing director James Lee. "There will be duplications in there."

According to a USAToday article,

"The company, based in Alpharetta, Ga., also says it is making about 17,000 customers go through a recredentialing process to verify that they are legitimate businesses, and it has hired a retired Secret Service agent to revamp its verification process.

Customers that will have to be recredentialed are any business that is not publicly traded or not a government agency. Once recredentialed, those customers will no longer have access to consumers' Social Security numbers, dates of birth and driver's license numbers unless they are sponsored by a public company or government agency, Lee said."

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