Win a Championship, Lose Sensitive Data
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This recent report – received in an email alert from American Banker – made the fraud prevention professional in me cringe. However, it made the Red Sox fan in me chuckle. Is that bad? I also thought it fitting that someone threw paychecks at the Yankees, but I digress.
From American Banker Wild Toss By Daniel Wolfe
Some fans participating in last week's ticker-tape parade for the New York Yankees threw caution ”and a few Social Security numbers” to the wind.
In lieu of ticker tape, many people threw shredded documents from their office windows and some unshredded ones as well, some local reporters discovered.
The New York Daily News reported Saturday that an employee of the stock trading firm Alan Sarroff LLC hurled several paychecks from the 17th story of his office building. The company would not identify the worker, but described him as an "overenthusiastic" fan who did not realize he had thrown out confidential information. The paychecks had names, addresses, and Social Security numbers.
Separately, Fox News reported Friday that its own reporters found unshredded forms bearing medical and financial data that they described as "the perfect tools for identity theft."
Fox speculated that most of the information it found was from an insurance company with offices in downtown Manhattan, where the parade took place. Fox said it was contacting the people whose information it had found.