Identity theft stops recycling

Massachusetts newspapers Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette (both owned by the New York Times) made quite the blunder this week. Apparently when they send shipments of newspapers to stands, they always include some sorta routing slip. Environmentally friendly as they are, these are printed on reusable paper - paper that's been used on one side only and thus can have the other side reused. Some of these reusable papers included internal memos with customer credit card numbers.

They've fixed the problem though: they're going to stop reusing paper. I guess the option of shredding important documents never occurred to them.

ETAA:

• Globe article


• Globe letter to readers


• Globe hotlines deluged


• Globe Credit Card lookup