Confidential bank details scavenged from computers dumped in British rubbish tips and recycling points are being traded for cash in Africa, according to a new investigation.

Personal data, including passwords, sort codes, account numbers and even family names and birth dates, are being offered for sale by fraudsters in Nigeria for less than £20.

The information is being taken from the hard disks of PC’s abandoned at waste tips and local authority recycling points which are then shipped to Africa for repair.

Although the owners believe that they have deleted any confidential information before throwing away the computers, the data can usually be retrieved easily and quickly.

Telegraph

Banks will be among the many institutions that will be able to access NIR related information, qed we shall see this story repeated with far more sensitive & personal information if the NIR database goes ahead and people register on it. Of course the increased usage of computer records in the NHS and other State agencies means a potential agglomeration of personal data from recycled/waste PCs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 at 4:02 pm and is filed under NIR, Privacy.