2.3 Million Customer Records Stolen, Sold To Direct Marketers
Fidelity National Information Services, a financial processing company, announced today that one of its employees had stolen 2.3 million customer records containing credit card, bank account and other personal information, and sold that information to an unidentified "data broker" who then sold the information to various direct marketing companies.
"As a result of this apparent theft, the consumers affected received marketing solicitations from the companies that bought the data," said Renz Nichols, President of Certegy Check Services in a statement released on Fidelity's website. "We have no reason to believe that the theft resulted in any subsequent fraudulent activity or financial damage to the consumer, and we are taking the necessary steps to see that any further use of the data stops."
The company has notified credit bureaus and credit card companies of the breach. It will also be personally notifying consumers who are affected by the theft and seeking a civil action to stop the use of the stolen data. The employee has been fired.
Fidelity National Information Services Announces Misappropriation of Consumer Data by Employee of Certegy Check Services Division (Press Release)
2.3 million consumer financial records stolen [MSNBC] (Thanks, Omar!)
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Fired? The employee has been fired? As in let go? That's it?
How about hung, drawn, quartered, stomped upon, beaten, turned into mush, and then fired...in an oven at 1,000 degrees?
Please tell me there's instant jail time for stupidity like this. Telling me the employee's been fired is like telling me you've spit on a four-alarm fire to try and put it out.
At the VERY least, he should have HIS personal information sold to every adult product/service solicitor and telesurvey company, then post his address as a sucker for AmWay.
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This wouldn't be the same Fidelity that sells mutual funds, would it? Neither piece linked t said yea or neigh. That would be bad... I've got a few bucks there, and that would mean my SSN, Mother's maiden name, etc. I hope this isn't the case!
Or maybe arrest the people who bought the stolen information?
Anyone else notice the actual company here is Certegy? Remember them? They won't let you write a check at Walgreens, but they're happy to sell your personal data!
How about: "The employee has been fired...and his name released so that anyone affected can sue him, his former employer, and the cockroaches that purchased the personal data from him with full knowledge that it was stolen"?
@ ACIDREIGN
Not the same Fidelity
@tedyc03: no, cuz he'll be dead. this filth & his buyers to deserve to live very long, very agonized lives of utter misery & humiliation. . . .
My wife just called me and told me she got the letter from Certegy.
If you ask me, people like this should have their name and personal information broadcasted for all to see, and then let the community do what they will with the person....
Reminds me of the spammer a while back who feared for his life after his own personal info was given out to the public.
A friend of mine that has the glorious privilege to still be in high school came to me with a question the other day. She received a letter from Certegy, telling her that one of her bank accounts was involved in the massive records scandal.
I received the Certegy letter just last week, telling me that my checking account information had been sold by one of their employees to direct marketing associations (which explains my months-long annoyance with telemarketing calls after having been on the Do Not Call List since it's inception.) While they insist that no identity theft or fraud has been detected, they would like everyone whose information has been "compromised" to be vigilant, monitor our accounts, pull our credit reports and, if we feel like it, PAY to set up monitoring with the credit monitoring agencies. Am I being just a bit paranoid, or is it terribly suspicious that Certegy (formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of credit reporting agency Equifax) is involved with a situation in which 2.3 million people are now being urged to avail themselves of credit monitoring services offered by, wait for it, Equifax? That Equifax is participating in Senate subcommittee hearings involving telemarketing fraud has added a bit of fuel to my little paranoia bonfire.
I just got the letter today and am furious. Thanks to an identity-theft paranoid father, I have always been one to shred all envelopes with my name and address on them, all receipts with full or even partial credit card numbers, etc. Now, the information on account I would have considered my safest (it is the only one I have that I opened in person, at M&T Bank, at the tender age of 12) has been compromised. And considering most people got their letters a month ago, Certegy can screw themselves for allowing my data to be sold off and then not giving me prompt notice of the actions I need to take.
The employee has been "fired"? How about "arrested"?????