Banks, retailers, cellphone stores and travel agents are throwing clients personal information in trash bins at shopping malls making it easy for fraudsters to steal identities, Saturday Star reported. Bank details, credit card forms with signatures, copies of IDs and mortgage documents, all supposedly on their way to a landfill, were found in the bins. Specialist fraud investigator Duncan Waugh took the newspaper on a tour of the bins. There they found a number of documents, including a confidential affidavit to confirm an address with details of a home-owner, his ID number and signature along with certified copies of the clients ID, according to the report. Then there were full details of an external transfer of money amounting to R400 000 with signed instruction forms, the ID copies of the sender, proof of address and the recipients full details. Areas where the personal and sensitive client information was picked up included Cresta, Rosebank, Sandton, Protea Glen and Southdale, the newspaper reported. The information gathered was enough to allow fraudsters to open bank accounts, buy goods, illegally apply for credit, or access medical aids in your name. Waugh said he believed the action of raiding bins was behind the countrys identity theft. The big corporates are putting their customers at risk in direct violation of the Constitutions right to privacy, he was quoted as saying.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 10:43:11 +0000
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