Scottish Widows customers' information shared in 'printing error'

22 August 2020, 10:13

Dozens of Scottish Widows customers have had private information about their pension accounts shared with other people in what the company says is a "printing error".

Names, plan numbers, fund values and investment details were accidentally sent to around fifty of the wrong account holders by the Edinburgh based insurance company.

A letter sent to affected customers said: “The annual statement we recently sent you was incorrect and should be destroyed. We also recently sent one of our customers an annual statement which contained part of your annual statement”.

Kirsty has a pension plan with Scottish Widows and received one of the letters. When she checked her most recent statement she said she’d actually been sent highly sensitive personal information and account details belonging to a total stranger.

She told LBC “the letter asked me to destroy this gentleman’s details, and I assume that he got a similar letter asking him to destroy my details, but I mean I have no way of knowing that he’ll do that”.

“The thought that somebody could potentially have used my account number and my name, to get access to - and who knows what - it’s just all a bit terrifying really, when you trust that your details are not going to be given out”

A spokesperson for Scottish Widows said that keeping customers' information safe is their priority, and they've ensured any data incorrectly shared wouldn't enable anyone to access another policy.

“When we make a mistake, we take immediate action to put things right and we have apologised to [Kirsty] for the printing error which meant she received the wrong statement," the firm said.

Around 50 people were affected by the data breach.