Sunday, August 5, 2007

Dumpster Diving for Punishable Intent

Instead of dumpster diving for malicious intent, Texas' most famous dumpster diver, AG Greg Abbott, is diving for punishable intent. The Attorney General’s latest undercover rampage has been posed on Lifetime Fitness. Out of the 11 Minnesota-based health spas located in Texas, Plano, Allen, Flower Mound, Colleyville, Dallas and Garland were all allegedly involved in disposing of personal information in dumpsters outside each of their gyms. This is just the lastest of a dozen or so businesses which have been sued for mishandling non-public information. Lifetime Fitness faces charges of $25,000 per violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (DTPA) for repeatly negating training of their employees on the proper procedures for handling consumer information. In addition, Lifetime Fitness faces federal charges of up to $50,000 per violation of the President’s Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act.

Consumers of these locations are urged to monitor their bank accounts closely, however, other personal records may also be at risk, such as DMV records. You may also want to file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General’s office at (800) 252-8011 or do so online. For other alternative measures, you may also contact me at the email address above.



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