Bank details found on PC sold via eBay

Last Modified: 26 Aug 2008
Source: ITN

The financial information of customers belonging to two high street banks and a credit card company has been found on a computer sold on eBay.

The data included bank account numbers, phone numbers, mothers' maiden names and signatures of customers of American Express, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford, found the data on the hard drive of the PC he had bought through the auction website, according to reports.

The computer had belonged to Graphic Data, a company that holds financial information for organisations, and was used at the firm's archive centre in Shoeburyness, Essex.

A spokeswoman for eBay, Jenny Thomas, said her company is working with Graphic Data to investigate the sale.

Ms Thomas said: "Clearly such details should never have been included in the hard drive of the computer offered for sale on eBay. We fully expect Mr Chapman to hand it back to Graphic Data as soon as possible.

"We will, of course, work with Graphic Data to establish how it came to be available for sale on our site."

Meanwhile, an RBS spokeswoman said: "Graphic Data has confirmed to us that one of their machines appears to have been inappropriately sold on via a third party. As a result, historical data relating to credit card applications from some of our customers and data from other banks were not removed."

She added: "We take this issue extremely seriously and are working to resolve this regrettable loss with Graphic Data as a matter of urgency."

Ron Condron, manager at Graphic Data, was unavailable for comment.

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