Confidential files relating to customers of Barclays Bank have allegedly been stolen and sold on to rogue city traders. The information pertains to customers’ earnings, savings, mortgages, health issues and insurance policies, which have not in the custody of unscrupulous brokers. The leak was exposed by an anonymous whistleblower who passed the newspaper a memory stick containing files on 2,000 of the bank’s customers. He said the stolen database consisted of more than 27,000 files, which he said could be sold for up to £50 per file. Each report was about 20 pages long and among the victims were doctors, businesspeople, scientists, a musician and a cleaner. All had sought financial advice from the bank and passed on their details during meetings with an adviser. Select traders were given the ‘Barclays leads’ and from December 2012 to September 2013 a number of victims were persuaded to buy rare earth metals that did not exist. The whistleblower estimated there were up to 1,000 victims of scams. An investigation is now on. Barclays said its initial investigations suggested this is isolated to customers linked to Barclays financial planning business which it ceased operating as a service in 2011.
