A woman who recently moved to Dundee was “gobsmacked” when she was sent SSE account details for four strangers in the post.
Janet Bethany, 58, got a surprise envelope in the mail from SSE that contained four letters for other accounts.
Mysteriously, each letter was duplicated so the bulky envelope contained eight sheets of paper. The full account details for four addresses in Honeygreen Road were included.
Ms Bethany, who moved to Dundee from York last month, is temporarily staying in Earn Crescent.
Ms Bethany tried contacting the energy company to tell them about the mishap, but her calls went unanswered.
And she is worried that the letters, which were dated May 28 and arrived at her address on Thursday, could have lead to someone’s identity being stolen if they had been received by somebody with nefarious intentions.
She said: “I was gobsmacked when I opened the envelope to find other people’s information. I’m new to Dundee so I don’t even have a clue where Honeygreen Road is.
“I’m sure this goes against the new data protection laws that we’ve been hearing so much about.
“There are real risks with sharing people’s data. If personal information got in the wrong hands then it could be used to steal someone’s identity. It is a data protection breach.
“A utility bill is often asked for as a form of ID so in the wrong hands something like this could be used to get money or something like that.
“I instantly tried to phone SSE to let them know this happened, but it rang out for quite a while and my phone is on pay as you go so I couldn’t hold on for longer.
“There were eight letters in one envelope, so I don’t know how this could have happened.
“A computer wouldn’t do a thing like that by itself so someone has must have messed up. It’s a person that surely oversaw this and I think that person should be retrained.”
The envelope was addressed to “***super customer***” and the enclosed letters were advertising smart meters.
“It was a complete surprise, I haven’t even asked for a smart meter,” Ms Bethany added.
“I don’t know why they sent that to me as I’m in temporary accommodation from the council so I don’t even think I’d have permission to get one of them.”
An SSE spokesman said: “SSE would like to apologise to Ms Bethany for the inconvenience and trouble this has clearly caused her. SSE is investigating this matter fully but we are obviously disappointed it happened in the first instance.”
