Whenever a potential new client leaves me a message I usually do a reverse lookup on their number before I call them back so I have an idea as to whether they are in our service area or not. In doing a reverse lookup recently I found something that stunned me. I found this person’s number listed on another pet sitter’s website. That’s not what stunned me.
What stunned me is along with their phone number was their credit card number and the instructions and code on how to disarm their alarm system!
WOW. One quick reverse lookup of their phone number and I had their address!
To make it even scarier; they weren’t the only ones with their personal information on the website. Apparently this website was coded as such that nothing was secure and all information submitted was hosted on the website.
Hating the thought of the information falling into the wrong hands, I called a friend of ours that is a police officer and asked him if I should do something?
These people could easily have their identity stolen. Our friend took a look and was as stunned as I was. He forwarded it to the appropriate department to notify the pet sitter.
Had this been a member of our pet sitting network I’d have notified them immediately however this was a pet sitter I have never spoken to so I was hesitant to make contact (yet another good reason to network).
It made me realize just how thankful I am that we invested in professional pet sitting software. There is NO chance that this could ever happen to our clients. All information submitted via our client portal is secure.
So, I ask you. How livid would YOU be?
Leave a Reply