The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has been faxing confidential information about hundreds of its customers to a scrap yard operator in West Virginia for more than three years, and he says he can't get them to stop.
Wade Peer says he has been overwhelmed since 2001 by internal CIBC fund transfer request forms containing the social security numbers, home addresses, phone numbers and detailed bank account data of several hundred bank customers.
“Had I been a bad guy, I could have got credit cards in their name, I could have assumed their identity. I could have transferred money out of their bank accounts and they'd never know that it happened,” Peer said at his 30-acre scrap yard in the rolling hills of West Virginia . . . [Read the CTV story and watch the video ]
After reading this part of the story: “Peer acquired a toll-free fax number for an auto accessories business he started in 1999. That number is 1-877-777-2774. The fax number for CIBC's central fax unit is 1-877-772-7749.” it seems to me the most likely explanation for Peer's continued receipt of CIBC documents is simply that people are misdialing.
I have never understood businesses' reluctance to use email for confidential communications, when they blithely send faxes with no idea whether, or who, is receiving them. Fax machines are rarely private, and they don't send return receipts. Email is, and does.