checking on my accounts

[Northy85]

Gday guys,

I'm having a problem with someone in my family who has the ability to check on people's mortgages and accounts. they have a mate who is a debt collector and he has checked on a someone's account before who I know. I know this happened because the person in question told me about the snooping.

Is there anyway to know whether he has checked on my account or to prevent him from doing it again.

 

[Paul@PFI]

Veda Advantage is a subscription service that alerts you if anyone accesses your credit reporting or applies for credit. It is a VERY good identity fraud safeguard. As a cost is involved their motives must be questioned.

http://www.veda.com.au/

Call Veda and discuss if this can identify prying eyes from a genuine credit check. They can explain what basic information is required to access your credit history.

 

[Terry_w]

Yes, make a complaint to your mortgagee. Then make a complaint, if it has happened, do the regulator of debt collectors in your state - which may be the department of fair trading. There is also the breaches of the privacy act - I think there is a privacy commissioner or ombudsman.

 

[Northy85]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll give that mob a call and get some help to hopefully prevent this from happening again. It just goes to show even family can be untrustworthy.

 

[Hulkster]

During a commercial purchase a few years ago the vendor let slip that he had a contact at the bank we were using for finance who had given him (the vendor) a detailed breakdown of our financial information/position from our file and application which he attempted to use against us.

Resulted in some "interesting" conversations with the bank, a career or two cut short, and a confidentiality agreement

 

[marg4000]

Obviously this person works for a bank or financial institution. There are very serious privacy issues if a person is accessing records without good reason.

There is a financial ombudsman who can investigate for you, but be aware this may result in dismissal or charges being laid if your suspicions prove to be correct.
Marg

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

The good news is that the banks (and other corporations such as utility providers) systems have significant safeguards around this sort of thing. There are some people within the bank who'll have access to all sorts of information for legitimate purposes. Whilst they can access the info whenever they like, their movements are tracked.

Back in my IT days I was a software developer for the company that built and maintained the White and Yellow Pages databases. At a moments notice I could log in and look up any phone number in the country, regardless of what restrictions there were around that phone line (private, silent, etc). Everything else is in there as well (names, addresses, DOB, full account history).

Plenty of people had access to see everything, but unless you were a developer there was no easy way to avoid the logging mechanisms in place.

The banks systems would be significantly more secure. If you make a complaint they will be able to track down who accessed your account and what they did there.

 

[Northy85]

I sent an email off to the company mentioned previously and hopefully will get some information. It's good to here the financial institutions keep track of the snooping.