Bank's credit card bills found dumped

AT least 500 credit card bills were found dumped at a recycling station in the Pudong New Area yesterday, raising concerns over a possible leak of bank customers' personal information.

The bills, in more than 10 bunches of 50 each, were from the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

The bank and the Pudong post office are investigating but the bank said its preliminary investigation found the post office to be responsible for the incident.

The director of the Pudong post office hung up on a Shanghai Daily reporter when asked about the find.

The problem came to light when a resident living near the recycling station in Nanhui area posted photos of the dumped bills online.

It was not known whether the bills were current or months old.

According to a bank insider, the bank would get back bunches of bills from time to time - usually rejected mail.

The bank generally keeps the bills for six months in case any customers come to claim them.

Once that period ends, the bank will ask local authorities to help destroy the bills in a safe way.

Guo Wei, a 28-year-old business owner, worried that people's individual information could be leaked.

"Anyone can reach the information if it's randomly dumped," he said.

"If I did not receive the bill, I would worry more about my personal information than the bill itself."

He said that he and many others he knew had often received marketing phone calls from real estate agents, insurance firms and other companies that seemed to be able to discover their identity, even though they were not the firms' customers.

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