London & Country and your personal data

Dragosani

Following my application via the above broker for a mortgage I am horrified to have received an email containing ALL of my personal details.... credit card number, employment details, addresses, income, debts, accountant, solicitor.... EVERYTHING.

The email was not secure, sent to a hotmail account, no encryption, no password, nothing. ALL of my personal details (and those of my wife) exposed.

The ONLY step L&C seem to have taken to protect my personal data is to mark the email header "PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL". Presumably to help people identify the information as being worth stealing....

When at the quote stage, I instructed the sales guy not to send any personal data via email. I am gob-smacked that now the full application is going through my case manager has not followed this.

UPDATE:- L&C provided reassurance this is being investigated. Will update once resolved. Information does not have to be provided via email so if you don't want yours to be, make sure you don't provide an email address and specify you want posted documentation.

Dan_Collins_2

Email is a very common way to pass info. It is very safe and you have more of a worry with banks leaving rubbish outside and your post than emails.

However if you said dont email details then they should listen. More so when card numbers ect.

If I have a client wanting to email me numbers like that I ask them to send it over a few emails, just in case!

Mortgageman

Hi Dragosani,

Our compliance department have received details of this issue, and will deal with under our formal complaints procedure.

They will be in contact shortly to acknowledge receipt of this, and to outline the procedure going forwards.

It goes without saying that we take items of this nature extremely seriously, and will be treating it with the priority it deserves.

As I say, our compliance department will be in touch imminently, but if I can do anything in the mean time please don't hesitate to contact me.

MM

UK007BullDog

Emails are not very safe. This would so annoy me too. The info should have been sent in numerous emails or better by fax (and ask the recipient to stand right next to it) or via snail mail.

Ximian

I agree with Bulldog, emails are not safe, unless they are encrypted via PGP or similar. There are numerous ways to transmit data securely via electronic means, for example: provide a temporary dedicated download area just for that customer that is password protected and the username and password provided over the phone the site should also be running HTTPS or send the forms via registered snail mail. Creating a zip file and password protecting the contents isn't very safe either since WinRAR and WinZip have weak encryption methods.

Dan_Collins_2

The point here is nopt the method, but the fact the client asked for the info not to be sent via email!

herbiesjp

Totally agree that a customer's request should be met if at all possible

Just a thought though - snail mail is not exactly safe either though, identity theft is rife and details could easily be stolen this way as well

dunstonh

I get about 5 envelopes a week which have been incorrectly delivered. I rarely get an email go missing. Yes an email could be intercepted by someone but the odds of that person being able to use that data to their advantage is astronomical when you look a the numbers of emails processed every day.

That said, because of this thread I purchased nuance pdf convertor 5 which is an advanced pdf writer (adobe's version was far more expensive) which allows me to encrypt and password protect pdfs. That will further reduce the odds. It will also allow me to use that in my TCF plan as evidence of something I have done with regards to TCF. If any of the self employed brokers think the same, let me know as I have a £20 discount off the retail price of £99.99 which I can email you (then take your 40% tax off and its real cost is only £47.99 - good value in that respect as you benefit the client and you get to show a TCF action).

Dan_Collins_2

I think Date protection is going to be an issue, so many disks going missing, but as its by government dept's it will all go away! We have very good software to store date but sending data is hard. If someone wants to get your info they will. I have a friend who is going to encrypt MSN and emails. Not sure what its called.