Stolen laptops or hacked student databases are one thing, but lost student loan promissory notes? That’s what Florida’s Department of Education is telling 475 student-loan borrowers. According to the Office of Financial Student Assistance, the students’ financial records may have been exposed to identity theft due to the lost notes that students signed when they were going to school, and have now fallen behind on.

“While your file was being processed for reassignment during the week of May 25, 2009, your promissory note(s) was lost,” read the memo from the financial assistance office that went to the borrowers. The office “cannot verify if the record of your promissory note(s) has been tampered with or if the confidentiality of your promissory note(s) was compromised,” the letter added. It urged borrowers to place a fraud alert on their credit files.

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