Ladbrokes: working with police, data watchdog and ICO
PICTURE: Daily RecordLadbrokes reassure users over data protection
LADBROKES are contacting punters to reassure them their credit card details, passwords, and other financial details are safe after confidential records of millions of gamblers who bet with the bookmaker were offered for sale to a national newspaper.
The Mail on Sunday was passed personal information on 10,000 Ladbrokes customers by a mysterious Australian, who claimed to have access to its database of 4.5 million people in Britain and abroad.
The records include home addresses, customer account numbers, details of their gambling history, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses.
After being alerted to the security breach on Saturday, Ladbrokes called in the police, and Britain's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), is also investigating.
The database was offered for sale by a man calling himself 'Daniel', who claimed to have worked as a computer security consultant forLadbrokes in Britain two years ago, and now based in Australia.
Ciaran O'Brien, head of PR at Ladbrokes, said: "We have been informed that a person connected to our organisation has offered certain details from a customer database to the Mail on Sunday.
"This is a criminal act and we are working with the police, the ICO and the newspaper to identify and apprehend the culprit.
"We are in the process of contacting customers to apologise for this breach in security and to reassure them that everything is being done to protect their personal information.
"Importantly this does not effect customer passwords or banking data."
