Did my bank sell my personal information?

tiggy61

Went online the other day to open a savings account with a building society and when they posted me the forms I noticed I had made a small mistake in the address.

Today I received a speculative letter from a local estate agent to ask if I was looking to move house. It was addressed to "The Occupier" at exctly the same mis-typed address I gave in my online form.

I phoned the building society and they told me they absolutely do not share the information with anyone. I phoned the estate agent and the admin person isn't there today.

If, as I suspect, the building society sold my personal information to this estate agent (either directly or indirectly), who else did they sell it to?

Gromitt

Whilst its possible, I'd check your credit report and electoral roll data first to see if the the same mistake is there.

rb10

Some small local building societies are part of/own/are linked to local estate agents - are you sure it wasn't this?

noh

tiggy61 wrote: »

Went online the other day to open a savings account with a building society and when they posted me the forms I noticed I had made a small mistake in the address.

Today I received a speculative letter from a local estate agent to ask if I was looking to move house. It was addressed to "The Occupier" at exctly the same mis-typed address I gave in my online form.

I phoned the building society and they told me they absolutely do not share the information with anyone. I phoned the estate agent and the admin person isn't there today.

If, as I suspect, the building society sold my personal information to this estate agent (either directly or indirectly), who else did they sell it to?

What personal information?
The letter from the estate agent was addressed to the occupier.
It is likely that every household in your street and the surrounding area received the same letter.

missile

As rb10 suggested many companies pass on your details to their sister companies.

If you name the bank and EA, I am sure someone will be able to confirm there is a link between them.

It is less likely but not unknown for an employee to pass on your details.

tiggy61

rb10 / missile: Estate agent is independently owned.

noh: They may have concealed my name but they still made exactly the same mis-type in my address, which nobody else has ever done.

gromitt: credit report and electoral roll have my correct address.

noh

tiggy61 wrote: »

rb10 / missile: Estate agent is independently owned.

noh: They may have concealed my name but they still made exactly the same mis-type in my address, which nobody else has ever done.

gromitt: credit report and electoral roll have my correct address.

Maybe the same mistake was made in the address but no personal information has been passed on.
The letter was addressed to the occupier. The estate agent as I said has most likely sent the same letter to every house in your street. I regularly receive such letters as do my neighbours especially this time of year.

tiggy61

noh: I'll check with the neighbour when she gets home. I also get junk mail from estate agents, but they use my correct address - as published in the Electoral Roll.

If it does turn out that the Building Society gave my address to a local, independently owned, Estate Agent when I applied for their online savings account, should I be concerned?

rb10

Which building society? And what's the name of the estate agent?

madgagoo

If you did not tick the box on the application to say that the building society could not share your information with third parties, then they possibly could have sold the information (I think). You have given them permission to do so, if this is the case.

However technically it is not your personal information, it is an address. It would only be your personal information (as defined by the data protection act) if you can be identified from it. Generally this would be your name and address (not just your address).

jonesMUFCforever

If they had sold your information the first thing that they would have sold would be your NAME and address.
If the letter said occupier then IMO it's a coincidence.