Since February, the OC Register has printed multiple articles on a Corona Del Mar mortgage firm, Seaview Financial, which dumped an estimated 350 clients files into recycling bins at an elementary school. The files containing personal information including social security numbers, bank transactions, credit reports and other information were thought to have been sitting in the open for three days. This puts Seaview Financial’s clients at a high risk for identity theft.
Owner, , claims he hired a company to burn the paperwork and is not liable for what that company did with it. The articles outline that, Reed would not present a receipt or give the name of the company he worked with.
In the spirit of good faith and American patriotism, let us assume Reed is innocent until proven guilty, and trust that he contracted with a paper destruction company. His liability falls on researching the company and knowing where his clients’ personal information goes when it leaves his office. Reed is liable for his customers documents and is learning his lesson the hard way; his mortgage license may be in jeopardy of being suspended or revoked. Reed may also have to pay for each of the clients to have identity theft protection for several years.
If you don’t know what happens to your documents when they leave your office, now is the time to find out. If your current paper destruction company cannot show you what happens to your company’s confidential documents and clients’ personal information, find a new destruction company.
For those in the greater Los Angeles and Orange County area, contact Go Green Mobile Shredding. Go Green lets you watch your documents be destroyed, if you choose, and presents you with a Certificate of Destruction upon completion. Go Green then goes that extra step to do their part in protecting our environment by delivering the destroyed documents to a certified recycling facility, in their top of the line emission controlled diesel engine trucks.
If you are outside the area, be sure to contract with a company that is a licensed and bonded paper destruction company that follows strict legislative mandates such as HIPPA and FACTA.
Don’t put your clients, company, or yourself at risk.
Links to a couple actual articles: “Board seeks to revoke license after broker dumped client files”
