A journalistic investigation has discovered that financial institutions in Ireland have contracted with the services of private investigators to retrieve personal information about their customers.
Private investigators have also resorted to presenting false identities to obtain personal information from government agencies, including the Department of Social Protection.
According to the Irish Independent, which carried out the investigation, the names of around 468 customers who have money in credit unions have been examined by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner with the Department of Social Protection, in order to find out whether their personal details have been disclosed to third parties.
It appears that the employees who revealed the details about the private investigators were not distributing the information and are claiming they were victims of fraud.
The researchers did not use technological means to extract the data, but relied on social engineering to have the records delivered to them by employees of the Department of Social Protection.
