Certegy Employee Sells Consumer Data to Marketers
FL-based Certegy Check Services reports that a former employee misappropriated and sold consumer information to a data broker who in turn sold a subset of that data to a limited number of direct marketing organizations. The Company strongly noted that the incident did not involve any outside intrusion into, or compromise of its technology systems. Certegy maintains bank account information in connection with its check authorization business that helps merchants to decide whether to accept checks as payment for goods and services. In addition, Certegy maintains check and credit card information in connection with its gaming operations that are designed to assist casinos in providing their customers with access to funds. This theft came to light when one of Certegy’s retail check processing customers alerted Certegy to a correlation between a small number of check transactions and the receipt by the retailer’s customers of direct telephone solicitations and mailed marketing materials. The Company investigated and fired the employee who was running a side business to sell the data.