Saturday, August 23, 2008

Partially Shredded Bank Checks Used as Packing Material?


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I saw this on CNN this morning and thought it would make for an amusing post.  A Texas company uses a bank's processed checks for packing material.  Some of the checks are not even fully shredded and contain drivers license numbers, routing numbers, addresses and bank account numbers.  The video clip above, if nothing else is entertaining.  Here's an excerpt from the video story...

"I was just in shock. I couldn't believe they were using shredded up checks as packing material," said Michelle McBride.  So Michelle and her step daughter Amelia started piecing it all together and found out they were right.  WHH Ranch uses its local bank's shredded checks to cushion their jars. They're checks from hospitals, medicare, schools, businesses, personal accounts, even government agencies.  WHH Ranch Company owner Billie Hamzy says, "We've been doing it so long. We are all out of sorts about it because it's so out of place for something like this to happen."  Hamzy says in the roughly 20 years his company's used the bank's shredded paper, the McBrides are the first customers to notice.  "That he knows of. How does he know he doesn't have a particular customer who is doing this to get this information," Michelle said.

It's information the McBrides found is not too hard to unravel. Michelle says, it's "very easy. You look at the colors, then you get the routing numbers and the bank information."

"We didn't piece any of this together. We just taped it to hold it all together. None of this is torn through at all," Amelia said."You get the wrong people getting this information, they could have a hay day with one box, a hay day and a shopping trip. It's scary." Michelle said.

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