Blockbuster Member? Your Identity Could Be at Risk
In an age where so many of us have actually had to endure identity theft, this next story is going to make you choke.
Right down in Sarasota, Fl a man was looking in a Blockbuster store’s dumpster for clean boxes when he came across video store were membership forms and employment applications that included names, addresses, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers.
He says that he told the store what he had found, but even so the very next day when he went after more boxes he found “credit card stuff.”
Federal and state officials said no law was broken.
Blockbuster claims they have a company policy that says “documents generated in-store, including customer information, must be destroyed when no longer kept on file.” This, according to a spokesman for Blockbuster Inc.
I guess they feel like tossing these items into a dumpster constitutes destroying them.
Think twice before providing personal info to businesses, even national chains.
This article is rather like a double-edged sword. On one hand it informs the public that there is a risk and to exercise caution. And boy am I glad I don’t have a blockbuster membership!
On the other hand, now the less than scrupulous are going to be going dumpster diving in Blockbuster’s dumpsters…
Our local papers are having a heyday with the fact that dumpsters are already an identity thief’s greatest joy.
..I am pretty sure when I lived about three hours north of us, I heard the local prison system had contracted to sort the city trash. That caused all sorts of panic.
And here in the Tampa area, you hear story after story of medical records being found in dumpsters.
Shredders should be mandetory for personal and business use.