Check Cashing Firm Dumps Hundreds of Customer Files in Dumpster
A small business owner in Oklahoma uncovered hundreds of dumped social security numbers, blank checks, bank statements and telephone records while renovating his jewelry store.
Eugene Probst, owner of On the Spot Custom Jewelry, was removing old dry wall from his business when he discovered hundreds of personal documents in a dumpster outside.
“Blank checks, social security cards, IDs, bank statements, telephone statements, everything,” said Probst. “I mean it’s quite extensive.”
After investigating the incident, authorities and Probst determined the source of the document leak to be a neighboring business — American Check Cashers of Oklahoma.
In a statement to local media, Christi Hardee, the owner of the check cashing firm, blamed the document dump on miscommunication between her staff and the shredding company she recently hired.
“As new owners, we decided to do some house cleaning and made two stacks of files; confidential files to be shredded and non-confidential files to be dumped. On Wednesday, November 24th, we hired a document shredding company to shred the confidential pile while the non-confidential pile was to be dumped. Apparently, confidential files got mixed up with non-confidential files and I’m not sure if this was our fault or the document shredding company, but our staff was clearly aware of those items that we instructed to be shredded versus those to be dumped. We value our customer’s privacy and confidential information and thought that we had taken all precautions necessary. I can assure you that any future shredding will be supervised by myself – personally.”As for Probst, he is trying to contact the individuals who were victims of the incident. If he is unable to reach them, he said he will destroy the files.
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