Results tagged “personaldata”

A Brooklyn resident walking his dogs on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill found files containing the personal information—including Social Security numbers and other confidential information—of hundreds of people. Luckily, he called WABC 7 Eyewitness News; Nat Hendricks explained, "The first one, I saw a person's name and address and date of birth, social security number and I closed the file." Eyewitness News found out the files were from a lawyer who had moved out of his office; the lawyer left the files, so his landlord just dumped them on the street! The common thread found was the name of the lawyer, Neda Imasuen, whose registration status is delinquent; Imasuen's landlord admitted he put the boxes on the street on Saturday and claims he scheduled them to be picked up on Sunday. Lawyers are supposed to be responsible for properly getting rid of files; identity theft experts suggest that clients ask their lawyers how their files are destroyed—or to request them back. And now the Attorney General's office is investigating, too.

It's a Citi Habitats client's worst nightmare—and a dream come true for identity thieves. WABC 7's Eyewitness News discovered "Scores of documents"—driver's licenses, credit reports—"were found strewn on the street for anyone to pick up." Told of finding her info on the street, one woman said, "Just in the gutter? My life was in the gutter. That's nice" Though businesses are required to shred such sensitive material, Citi Habitats' West 82nd and Columbus location "accidentally" left 2006-2007 client documents on the street during renovations, and a statement said, "We took immediate steps. to investigate and remediate this isolated incident, and are notifying those customers whose information may have been compromised." But WABC 7 found in spite of Citi Habitats' "remediation," "We were still finding documents a block away a full eight hours after the clean up was over."