Bankrupt lenders toss customer records in the dumpster. (unshredded)

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23505497/

Bankrupt lenders throwing away your privacy
Some mortgage companies tossing customers’ personal data in the trash
Video


Data in the Dumpster
In Cleveland, a defunct mortgage lender tossed personal data on hundreds of people in the trash. Tom Meyer of NBC affiliate WKYC tracked some of them down.
NBC News Channel

By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
updated 2:32 p.m. PT, Fri., March. 7, 2008
As recently as August, First Magnus Financial Corp. was the subject of a magazine feature hailing it as a “technological powerhouse” ready for the future thanks to its “tech-savvy management team.”

Just two weeks later, First Magnus, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, whose headquarters was one of the biggest employers in Tucson, Ariz., was out of business, another victim of the disintegration of the U.S. mortgage industry.

Among the revelations about Magnus was that it wasn’t quite as technologically advanced as had been billed. Most of its borrowers’ records were still on paper, as Floridians learned when thousands of loan documents were discovered in boxes in an unlocked trash Dumpster in Fort Lauderdale.