Dear Sir or Madam,
We are writing to let you know that computer tapes containing some of your personal information were lost while being transported to an off-site storage facility.
This from BNY Mellon. I assume it is something I have in my mutual fund, as it comes from shareholder services. From what I’ve just read online the major breech was credit cards, and I don’t think I have one associated with them.
According to Connecticut officials, the case stemmed from the bank’s Feb. 27 loss of six to 10 unencrypted tapes, while it was transferring back-up tapes that contained names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers.
How does an institution allow itself to get so careless?
They have offered me two years worth of free Triple Alert ( “Triple Alert the most affordable service available”, god knows don’t bother offering the best go with the most affordable), to monitor for possible misuse of my personal information. In other words to see if someone steals my identity.
We regret any inconvenience caused by this, we take protection of your personal information seriously.
Oh, and by the way this happened in February. Others were notified in June, but “the timing of this notice was affected by our forensic investigation into the nature and the scope of this incident, based on information to this date we have no reason to believe your information has or will be improperly accessed or misused as a result of this incident.” In other words “we thought 4 million people were affected, now we think it’s closer to 12 million”.
We understand you may have questions or concerns…. YA THINK?
Oh, and when you loose all my private personal information you could at least have the decency to find out if I am a “Sir” or a “Madame”. Who the talks that way anymore anyway? Is that aristocratic bank-speak supposed to make me trust you more?
Does anyone in the financial industry do their job?
I’m beginning to think it highly unlikely.
So, yea that probably wasn’t me you saw at the Six Senses Destination Spa in Phuket,, and no that $9,000 dollar Tiffany Vine Band Ring isn’t mine either, though it is rather attractive.
peace
That’s horrible, Miss Cooper. That’s why I think we should do away with the whole credit system and go back to bartering for goods.
Barter now and someone would be bound to be hurt. ;0
I mean–the way I look at it, a cow is a cow. If I give you a cow in exchange for services rendered it doesn’t matter what my identity is.
You now have a cow.
This whole credit system where monetary value is tied into your identity has made some things easier, but in a lot of ways it’s complicated the way people do business. Having currency to approximate the value of things, rather than just exchange the things in question leads to all sorts of complexities that are utterly unnecessary.
Huh. Sure looked like you.
ha, ha, it did didn’t it.
Well, I guess you better hope it isn’t a smart criminal or you’ll be buying plenty of stuff. (Course the banks are getting the criminal rap too. FBI is on the case now.)
Hell, I haven’t had a bank account in 5 years. And look at how well I’m doing…oh yeah, not so hot.
Good Luck.
My fingers are crossed.
Hopefully your financial institution is still around. Perhaps they didn’t notify you until so late because they didn’t anticipate longevity given the current markets…now with the talk of bailout, they figure they need to get things in order. Although something seems awfully fishy about this. I’d actually check with your bank. The “Dear Sir or Madame” reeks of a phishing scam.
http://www.mellon.com/mis/security/index.html
Yea it did to me too, so I left in on the table in a pile for a week and was looking at it last night, looking up the first lines and the bank and found that is is not fraud, there are several news articles on it and I followed my own links to the site for Triple Alert and looked up bny from goggle, not from the address given on the paper.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_570347.html
http://breachblog.com/2008/03/27/bny.aspx
At the onset they said 4 million as time went by it appears that number has grown to maybe over 12 million.
I got one of those letters, too. Just makes your day.
I don’t feel so alone now. ;)
Of course that $9,000 dollar Tiffany Vine Band Ring wasn’t yours, I’d expect much better taste out of you. Vine rings are so last year.
I so embarrassed not to have kept up with the fashion of the day. I am going to try to promise to do better. To think
Isomeone wasted my credit on something so passé.pfft.
I like the Tiffany Vine Band Ring but uh diamonds?
After getting a letter from Chase telling me I would be prosecuted on felony fraud charges–my identity was stolen and I was on vacation and didn’t know—I can take just about any letter from a bank
I kept an account there just so I could casually bring up “the time you tried to prosecute me…” But that whole department was fired and I didn’t see any fun in bringing it up to people who had nothing to do with it
hi Cooper
some ATMs over here still debit your account if there’s not enough cash in the machine to cover your withdrawal..
so you end up with a receipt for a withdrawal WITHOUT the cash!!
usually they get around to paying you YOUR money back in about 6 weeks..
really pays to keep your money under the mattress :)
Identity theft in Germany is much more difficult – you need to show too many original papers, IDs, etc to get anything accomplished here. And everytime I ever signed a credit or bank card slip the cashier really checks the signature.
P.S. Obviously they had to address you generically, as Sir or Madam. After losing your data they don’t have your name anymore.
Damn banks. My bank sent me two new credit cards with new numbers within days of each other because of some some vaguely-described security breach, which probably means it was an inside job. I used to work for them, so I am aware of the inside job, after two of my co-workers were carted off by security and their desks gone over with the enthusiasm of a CSI team.
That sucks cooper. I’ve never had that happen, but it just figures doesn’t it?
Banks are so sleazy. I use local banks where I know the people. I pray they aren’t gobbled up by the mainstream crooks.