Bank emails wrong person, sues

Photo by Flickr user dbking

It has probably happened to all of us: you click send and that sinking feeling that you just made a mistake hits. You sent the email to the wrong person. Imagine what that might be like if your email contained complete personal information and economic details for over 1,300 of your clients.

In an oddly backwards case of the wrongdoer suing the victim, a Wyoming bank emailed sensitive account information to the wrong Gmail account last month. The mistake was discovered and the bank sent two followup emails ordering the recipient to immediately delete the previous email – without opening it.

Although it’s not clear what the recipient could have replied to convince the bank they really never opened the email, the mystery email account did not reply at all. The bank turned to Google, asking them to reveal information about the account. Google refused in accordance to their privacy policy and the bank responded by suing. At the time of this writing a judge has ordered Google to deactivate the account and reveal information about its owner.

Google has stated it will give the account holder a chance to respond to the court’s request before turning over the information.