14 DAY TRIAL // A number of 15 collection letters, sent by the Bank of Melbourne to some of their customers, were found to contain sensitive information on other clients. Names, addresses, account numbers and amounts owed may have been included.
According to The Australian, due to a technical error, the financial institution inserted in some of the envelopes letters addressed to other individuals.
“Last month 15 Bank of Melbourne customers received letters from our collections area in relation to their account and, unfortunately, their envelope also contained collections letters addressed to a small number of other customers,” a Bank of Melbourne spokeswoman said.
She declined to detail what information was contained in the letters, but collection letters usually list the aforementioned data.
“This is a sensitive matter and relates to customer privacy so I’m not able to outline the details that were included in the letters,” she said
“However, I confirm that the risk of unauthorised transactions or fraudulent activity on these customers’ accounts, as a result of this issue was low, due to the minimal level of customer information contained in the letters.”
It seems as a “configuration error in a specific collections letter, with a misalignment of a particular field causing the issue” is responsible for the incident.
All the individuals involved were notified and the ones whose information was disclosed benefited from an account monitoring service to make sure no illegal transactions take place. In cases that related to credit cards, the bank reissued the cards.
While the Privacy Commissioner seems content with the fact that the bank took all the necessary precautions to make sure their clients would not suffer, some individuals that had nothing to do with the incident reported receiving letters from the bank in which they were appointed as the ones that received the erroneous mail.