Is Xtra-Vision selling our address to Fraudsters?

ixus

My partner recently became a member of our local Xtra-Vision and supplied her home & work address.

The next time we rented a film out, it turned out that the store had entered her work address as our home one.

Recently, she has received 2 seperate letters at work that no other member of staff received and the Xtra-Vision connection is the only logical one we could come up with.

The first letter invited her to join "the official British National Lottery" syndicate giving her up to 420 chances to win €220 million all for "the special international fee of €15".

The second letter, received today, invited her to donate money to sick kids (she left it at work, so I can't give specifics until tomorrow).

I read through an application form for Xtra-Vision last night and it did indicate they reserved the right to pass information to other companies within the Group. Also, to tick a box if you didn't want to receive special offers ( which i think was ticked).

However, the first "offer" in particular would appear to be fraudulant to me. Is it possible that Xtra-Vision is selling such information to "the bad guys"?

Anyone else experienced this?

Egyptian

I used to work for the company, albeit it I was only working in the store. But I was one of those guys that filled out the application form for customers. To be perfectly honest, the application forms themselves get thrown into a box under the counter, and just gather dust.

Although the information entered on the computer system could be retrieved from any store. It could easily be possible, and I think you should look into this further. After working there, I now despise the company and the majority of higher status staff. There are a lot of sly people who go behind your back, keep information from you, and would gladly take the shirt off your back if they had the chance!

__

Huggles

Hi, I worked in the store for five years and the marketing dept. for six months, the information is not passed on as you are protected by the data protection act.

I second what the other ex employee said about a box under the counter.

FillSpectre

Egyptian wrote:

Although the information entered on the computer system could be retrieved from any store. It could easily be possible, and I think you should look into this further. After working there, I now despise the company and the majority of higher status staff. There are a lot of sly people who go behind your back, keep information from you, and would gladly take the shirt off your back if they had the chance!

Out of curiosity what kind of stuff I have a personbal interst in what kind of stuff but can't really say what. I can't really think of anything that they could do slyly to people who work in store or how they could take money from you.

on topic

All it takes is one person to incorrectly dump the material and that is it.

Asok

TheGooner wrote:

I second what the other ex employee said about a box under the counter.

So what you are saying is that sensitive customer information including their home and work address's is securely kept in a box under the desk.....

Q_Ball

Asok wrote:

So what you are saying is that sensitive customer information including their home and work address's is securely kept in a box under the desk.....

literally, a box full of forms kept under a desk pretty much sums it up when i worked there. not securely, just a plain old box full of them. with no top so that you could see that it was the membership forms box

Time Magazine

Firstly, really don't think Xtra-vision do that. Although each store is connected to a modem, I think that's only to download price changes etc. Although Computer Support guys once printed out a receipt from their side of the world, which was a bit freaky, so it might be possible. The main reason I don't think there's a central database of customers (ne'er mind exploitation thereof) is because every morning the databases are backed up in-store by the marvellous technology of floppy discs.

Oh and if any of you let the secret out that the forms are kept in a box (or, in our case, a shelf; which can be easily accessed if you're willing to break the window and climb in) I will personally see to all of your accounts having mysterious debts placed on them .

fifth

Sorry to bump this thread but..

I work for XV and LMFAO @ this. No they don't sell on your info.

And angry banana - wouldn't you need to be able to dial into individual stores , bearing in mind that we still aren't connected to one another yet? :P

faceman

OP, you will need to write or phone the companies that sent you the letters asking them where they got your details. Let us all know how you get on.

Bare in mind when you call them, they will probably try fob you off by saying oops sorry we will delete your details but make sure you ask them where they got them in the first place.

Sizzler

faceman wrote:

OP, you will need to write or phone the companies that sent you the letters asking them where they got your details. Let us all know how you get on.

Bare in mind when you call them, they will probably try fob you off by saying oops sorry we will delete your details but make sure you ask them where they got them in the first place.

And dont let them tell you " oh we use a marketing company" thats just a piss poor cop out. At the end of the day whoever sent the junk gets the bad name, not the marketing company!

Ive had serious problems with Citi Financial sending me loan offers. Ive asked 3 times to be removed from their list but no theres more they then compound their idiocy they surpassed themselves by sendling letters to my grandmother who has been dead for some years :mad:

RainyDay

Sizzler wrote:

Ive had serious problems with Citi Financial sending me loan offers. Ive asked 3 times to be removed from their list but no theres more they then compound their idiocy they surpassed themselves by sendling letters to my grandmother who has been dead for some years :mad:

You'll probably find your grandmother is still on the electoral register. Contact the council to get her removed to reduce chances of this happening in future.

tvnutz

Work at X/V,and trust me when I say the system is not good enough to be able to relay details to a 3rd party,the computers are about 10-15 years old. And the member ship forms are put in a box under the counter,which are moved out the back when full. They aren't dumped,unless someone is a complete retard,so relax,your details are safe.

RuggieBear

in one of my many past jobs, i helped clean up membership databases collected by xtravision which was then used for various marketing drops.

Capt'n Midnight

Angry Banana wrote:

every morning the databases are backed up in-store by the marvellous technology of floppy discs.

you would be amazed at how many names you can fit on a floppy disk if you don't use a bloated format.