After a week of investigating the episode, Wachovia acknowledged late last month that one of its clerks had made a mistake in entering Pirozzi's address, causing the company's computer system to link it with many other customers who, like Pirozzi, bought real estate through Walker Title and Escrow Co. of Fairfax.
Wachovia said that, overall, 86 statements or tax forms were mistakenly sent to Pirozzi, including information on 73 individuals. Pirozzi said the number of pieces of mail was significantly higher, closer to 140.
Homeowners association president Bob Butchko was angered when Falls Church condominium residents' tax forms containing private information were sent to someone in Minnesota because of a clerical error. The problem was uncorrected for nine months.
(Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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"Wachovia takes the protection of sensitive information very seriously," said Sandy Deem, a company spokeswoman. "It was an isolated incident that was very unusual. We have taken steps to prevent it from happening in the future."
Deem noted that the vast majority of the accounts were already closed by the time the statements were sent to Pirozzi. Established simply to hold the escrow deposits on their new condominium purchase, most of them had zero balances.
Alan Walker, president of Walker Title, said the problem lay with Wachovia. "The bank sends the statements out," he said. "We don't have anything to do with that." Walker said he didn't find out about the episode until Jan. 24 and that had he known sooner, "it would have been dealt with right away."
Deem said on Friday that Wachovia has now contacted or attempted to contact everyone whose financial documents were misdirected, even though the bank does not believe anyone's private information was misused.
Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, said the bank should have done that much earlier.
Givens said this case demonstrates that identity theft doesn't always stem from people being careless with their financial information; the institutions that people trust with that information can be just as negligent. Although the worst didn't happen here, information gleaned from misdirected mail can wind up on the black market, sold to the highest bidder.
There have been instances, Givens said, in which mail processing systems misfire and match each address with a name that's one off from the correct name. In those situations, she said, hundreds or even thousands of pieces of mail can go to the wrong address. But those kinds of mistakes are usually noticed and corrected quickly.
Pirozzi's case, she said, is remarkable for how long it went undetected.
