When Recycling Goes Too Far
June 3, 2009 – 10:16 am
Businesses around the world are getting swept up into the new Green way of doing things. And for good reason. In addition to creating good public relations buzz and cutting costs it helps keep waste more manageable. But you can go too far.
Recently a gas station in Mississippi began a new recycling program — printing their customer’s gas receipts on the flip side of rolls used to print credit information for the store’s internal purposes. Customers were surprised that they received their gas receipt along with two to four previous customer’s complete credit information. Not only did the recycled receipt show the complete credit card name and number, but also full name, expiration date AND security code. In some cases even the customer’s birthday was displayed. It was like handing away the actual credit card of the victim.
When the clerk ran out of receipt tape she called up the regional manager who advised her to “just reuse some old tape.” Evidently she was so flummoxed by this sudden occurrence that she didn’t bother to check what was on the previous rolls. It just goes to show that no matter how safe YOU are with your credit information, there’s always a bumbling clerk following the orders of a regional manger focused on cutting costs — even if it’s at your identity’s expense.
Make sure you’re protected with an ID theft prevention service of some sort that will protect you if your information is printed on the back of some convenience store receipt.
Tags: credit card numbers, gas station, going green, green, id protection, printing credit information, receipts, recycling, recycling receipts, security codes
