White light

I had to go to the bank after work to check on the status of my accounts. Everything was… good, since the people there didn’t help me much.

The surprise – and the reason for this post – is what I saw when leaving the bank. Given the current state of the country I don’t think it’s a good thing and I find it unsettling, to say the least. Specially when these days even bank managers run off with the money they’re supposed to be taking care of.

The objects in question were placed inside of a lidless crate mounted on the back of a motorcycle. Even though it was just a few steps from the bank’s entrance, anyone could have taken anything from that crate.

Inside the crate were envelopes

And not just any kind of envelopes. These were bank envelopes.

Enclosed in them could have been account statements, credit cards, loan information – and most troublesome – debit cards.

It was just a matter of grabbing a handful of envelopes, sit down at the nearest bus stop and open them one at a time until getting the most convenient one.

Say we get a credit card. Simple. Put the envelopes away, go back to the bank and activate the card. Then all that need be done is go get a W600 and a Zen Vision: M.

Account statements? Better yet. Some skillful photoshopping to a copy of my ID, a well placed credit application and a month later I get credit and someone else gets to pay for it.

But the big prize here is those debit cards, because they’re sent with the almighty PIN. Once I got the card, it’s just a matter of walking to the bank’s ATM and clean out somebody’s account.

I think it was just a thoughtless mistake from the messenger to leave the box unsupervised, but it doesn’t inspire trust in the banking system to see the financial information of so many people up for grabs. Just to think it could have been my information…