Wachovia To Post Office: We're Buying AG Edwards, So Who Cares What YOU Think?
I apologize for being gone from the blog for a week(!!!), but things've been crazy here at MyPublicInfo and I haven't really had time to do much ID theft-related bloggin' of late. Luckily, it's been pretty quiet on that front as well.
I did run across something amusing today, however. It seems that the U.S. Postal Service is taking issue with a recent Wachovia ad blaming mail services as a leading cause of ID theft:
Postmaster General John Potter today attacked Wachovia Corp. for
suggesting in a TV ad that the mail was a major source of identity
theft -- and that customers should pay bills online instead.Asserting that mail accounts for less than 4% of identity theft and
that the problem is already confusing enough to consumers, Mr. Potter
first ripped the ad, created by Interpublic Group of Cos.' Mullen,
Winston-Salem, N.C., without mentioning that it was for the nation's
fifth-largest bank.
Now, the biggest offline source of identity theft isn't in the mail, per se, but it comes from all the crappy junk mail and direct marketing solicitations that people get hit with because companies--including banks like Wachovia--sell people's information to other affiliated businesses. Given that fear of identity theft and the like is driving consumers away from conducting business online, it's disingenuous for Wachovia to take shots at the Post Office when they probably contribute their own healthy share of junk mail offers for credit cards, home equity loans, etc.
To be fair to Wachovia, they do have a very comprehensive security and fraud protection sub-site set up. And given that their massive buyout of AG Edwards just made them the second-biggest brokerage in the known multiverse, they probably don't care what a no-name federal agency like the Post Office thinks as it is. :)
As a reminder, if you want to stop or at least cut down on the amount of junk mail you get, visit OptOutPreScreen.com or call 1–888-567-8688.
Also, be sure to contact your bank and tell them that you want to opt out of any policy they have for selling your CPI ("Customer Proprietary Information") to third parties.