Bank customer details sold on eBay

A major investigation has been launched to find the facts behind how a laptop computer was sold on eBay for £35 ($70) and it is not just because of the price, which you have to say is low, but there was something of higher value stored on the hard drive.

The person who bought the computer was surprised to find that there were records of over a million bank customers including account numbers, phone numbers, mother’s maiden names, and signatures belonging to American Express, Nat West and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In a statement, Mail Source said it had no idea why the computer was sold on eBay, but added: "Investigations are still ongoing to find out how this equipment was removed from one of Graphic Data's secure locations.

"We take customer privacy and data security very seriously. This incident is extremely regrettable and we're taking every possible step to retrieve the data and ensure this is an isolated incident."

A spokesperson stressed that the sale had been an "isolated incident". "We know which employee took the server and sold it, but we believe it was an honest mistake and it was not intentional to sell it without the server being cleared," she said.

James Jones, a spokesperson for credit reference agency Experian, said people should not panic, as the information had not fallen into criminal hands.

"This case is just a bit of a close shave, although [it is] hardly isolated," he said. "Unless you've been particularly careless with your personal details the bank will always cover the cost of any fraudulent activity on your account."

He added: "Of course people still suffer potential damage to their credit records, which can be annoying not just in terms of the cost of phone calls or time spent sorting out the problem to the individual, but it may also hold up applications for credit like a mortgage, for example."

Identity crime is one of the fastest growing crimes in the UK, affecting over 100,000 people every year.

Source [Guardian]