Some mortgage companies tossing customers’ personal data in the trash

[SoCalDem]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23505497/

Bankrupt lenders throwing away your privacy
Some mortgage companies tossing customers’ personal data in the trash

Video
Data in the Dumpster
In Cleveland, a defunct mortgage lender tossed personal data on hundreds of people in the trash. Tom Meyer of NBC affiliate WKYC tracked some of them down.

As recently as August, First Magnus Financial Corp. was the subject of a magazine feature hailing it as a “technological powerhouse” ready for the future thanks to its “tech-savvy management team.”

Just two weeks later, First Magnus, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, whose headquarters was one of the biggest employers in Tucson, Ariz., was out of business, another victim of the disintegration of the U.S. mortgage industry.

Among the revelations about Magnus was that it wasn’t quite as technologically advanced as had been billed. Most of its borrowers’ records were still on paper, as Floridians learned when thousands of loan documents were discovered in boxes in an unlocked trash Dumpster in Fort Lauderdale.


snip

[ret5hd]

1. If i had a mortgage thru them...

i'd start asking for proof i owe them anything.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. That's good idea! Maybe there's a consumer forum you

can post that in.

[RC]

3. It looks like they were trying to get rid of the evidence to me

[SoCalDem]

4. or just not a bit concerned for people, since THEY were getting canned

or maybe they left all that stuff behind, and the landlord just tossed it all out

either way,,it sucks

[warren pease]

5. Also kinda dangerous because...

...courts have ruled that garbage left out for pickup can be searched by anyone without a warrant -- not that you need one anymore, warrants being sooooo 20th century.

But if they're leaving personal information at curbside, any idiot can grab hundreds of SS#s, bank statements, retirement acct. statements, credit card and bank acct. numbers, credit reports, tax records and so forth.

If I had a mortgage through these guys, I'd be looking at it two ways. One, I'd stop paying anything immediately and, if they didn't start bitching, I'd assume mine was one of the records they tossed.

And two, I'd use some of the money I saved not paying the mortgage to hire a private investigator and have her/him take a look around their garbage dumping area, see how secure or insecure it is and take a bunch of stills and video.

If it's extremely insecure and anyone can walk right up and start poking around -- which is what the article in the OP implies -- I'd sue the living shit out of the company, their execs, their insurers, their outside counsel and their security providers for failure to properly store confidential business records and for leaving data regarding secure financial transactions available to the general public -- or whatever the legal terms are for those kinds of offenses.

So best of all worlds, no mortgage and a bunch of money from these crooks, assuming they have any left. And even if they go bankrupt, I'll bet you could turn one of their VPs upside down and shake a whole bunch of money out of him. I'd certainly be happy to try.


wp