Two debt collection agencies published personally identifiable information for over 70,000 consumers on a website, without hiding the sensitive data.
The files were Excel spreadsheets and contained consumer details such as bank account and credit card numbers, dates of birth, contact details, employer names as well as information about consumer debts.
None of this information should be made public because malicious "interested parties" could benefit and harm the victims in various ways.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) intervened and filed a complaint in federal court for privacy violations by the two debt brokers, requesting measures to prevent future leaks of consumer information.
“Debt brokers and debt collectors who irresponsibly handle people’s sensitive personal and financial information cause enormous harm,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
In addition to the obvious risk of identity theft, consumers whose personal information has been exposed to the public may also fall victim to debt collection, a scam where fraudsters collect on debts.
According to the FTC, the data has been downloaded more than 500 times from the websites on which it was posted.
The two debt collection companies, Cornerstone and Company, LLC, of Riverside, California and Bayview Solutions, LLC, of St. Petersburg, Florida, have also been ordered to issue notices to all parties involved so that they can take the necessary protective measures and immediately report to the authorities any attempted fraud against them.
