Idehome: a customer list of about 7,000 property buyers in the Tokai area, with names and addresses, passed from employees of a past construction contractor to a sales solicitation firm and was used for cold calls offering free pipe inspections

1. 2021-06-23

   It announced the case. [1] [2]

From early April, cold calls from a party claiming to be the company's subcontractor were made to about 1,200 people. They offered free pipe inspections, and no paid work or services were provided. In April, several property buyers asked about the solicitation calls, which alerted the company to the problem. [1]

A list of about 7,000 records, including names, addresses, phone numbers and property handover dates, of customers who bought properties from the company in the Tokai area between February 2007 and December 2018. The company has no direct business relationship with the firm making the calls. When it demanded that the calls stop and asked for an explanation, the list turned out to be part of its own customer list. The soliciting firm also said it had received the list from some employees of a real estate related construction contractor the company had dealt with in the past. [1] [2]

The company has managed customer information in a dedicated system since 2018, and the contents of a file used internally before its introduction may have been printed and taken out. How the list reached the contractor's employees is unknown. The contractor that supplied the list apologized and explained that it had not known internally that the list was held or provided. The customer list found outside was recovered and destroyed. The company consulted the Personal Information Protection Commission, reported to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which has jurisdiction, and explained the case to customers individually with apologies. [1]