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Just got a booking update email for a stranger

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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:04 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by Ldnn1
So is the exec number in the booking theirs or yours?
Theirs, one of the exec numbers on the booking is very slightly similar to mine (has a few of the same numbers) but is far enough away that it would seem unlikely to be entered as mine.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:07 am
  #17  
 
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Prior to the email, have you spoken to anyone at BA recently? It might be that an agent wrote down your details and then wrongly added them to another PNR if they got their notes mixed up.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:08 am
  #18  
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Originally Posted by JAXBA
Prior to the email, have you spoken to anyone at BA recently? It might be that an agent wrote down your details and then wrongly added them to another PNR if they got their notes mixed up.
Nope, haven't spoken to CS in ages, next guess...
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:09 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by rpjs
Never mind telling BA, a Data Protection Act breach as serious as that needs to be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office.
+1 The concern that the ICO would have is whether this is a complete one-off by some BA person mistyping an email address somehow... or is a systemic problem.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:10 am
  #20  
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I would have first checked the email address that's actually in the booking.

If it's Joely's email address, then something has gone wrong in creating the booking or originally inserting the email address into the booking, but the booking update email has gone out as expected in the circumstances.

If the booking has no trace of Joely's email address, then there's a potentially more serious gremlin in the works that's perhaps randomly taking emails intended for address X and sending them to address Y.

I would have thought the ICO wouldn't be terribly interested in an accident of the first kind. Stuff like that happens; that's life.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:19 am
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by Joely
I just received an e-mail for a booking I didn't recognise. Sure enough when I opened the mail it informs me that the executive club number for someone I have never heard of was added by someone else I never heard of.

I guess somewhere in the BA system their booking reference got mixed up with my e-mail address but this seems like a fairly hefty breach of security. If I were a more malicious type I could get this families passport numbers, DOBs and other personal details simply by using the information in the e-mail. It further concerns me who might have got e-mails with my bookings!
The same thing happened to me last year but I was sent the details of a couple. I contacted BA, they apologised said that they had made an error but couldn't figure out how as our names were nothing alike and neither were our EC membership numbers. They assured me that as far as they could tell no-one had access to my details.

Give them a call and report it but it's disappointing to read that this has happened to someone else.

Bob
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:19 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
I would have first checked the email address that's actually in the booking.

If it's Joely's email address, then something has gone wrong in creating the booking or originally inserting the email address into the booking, but the booking update email has gone out as expected in the circumstances.

If the booking has no trace of Joely's email address, then there's a potentially more serious gremlin in the works that's perhaps randomly taking emails intended for address X and sending them to address Y.

I would have thought the ICO wouldn't be terribly interested in an accident of the first kind. Stuff like that happens; that's life.
So looking again a the booking, which I probably shouldn't be doing, but the main contact on the booking is listed as me and yet the e-mail addresses of two of the passengers (the parents I guess) are completely different. So somehow my e-mail address has been hooked up to a completely random booking.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:22 am
  #23  
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Sounds like BA IT at its finest again.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:38 am
  #24  
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Slightly off-topic but the messages for booking confirmation/booking updates of several bookings involving my friend and myself, all made in the same order (myself as first passenger, my companion as second passenger), are randomly received on one/the other or both email adress.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:42 am
  #25  
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Happened to me too. I never though much of it and it was more or less laughed off when I told them. Never thought about the DPA consequences at the time.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:44 am
  #26  
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So it seems that it has happened to at least three people on here, which would suggest it is a much wider, and more concerning problem. I just wonder who has got all my booking details now.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:51 am
  #27  
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Yes, this is all a bit Daily Mail. Someone has probably slipped a finger somewhere. The chances that it could have gone to a terrorist/criminal rather than the fine upstanding citizen that is the OP is very very slim.

A quick email/contact us would have got this sorted rather than starting fireworks on here (let alone twitter - what are you thinking that will achieve?) and getting the usual "oh my. What a disaster. What if....." etc. etc. in response.
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 8:53 am
  #28  
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Could this be related to a ghost/recycled PNR?
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 9:01 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by Joely
So looking again a the booking, which I probably shouldn't be doing, but the main contact on the booking is listed as me and yet the e-mail addresses of two of the passengers (the parents I guess) are completely different. So somehow my e-mail address has been hooked up to a completely random booking.
Hmm, have you checked your credit card? Any chance you've been skimmed and they're using your card to book flights and hence your email?
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Old Sep 7, 2016 | 9:06 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Joely
I just received an e-mail for a booking I didn't recognise. Sure enough when I opened the mail it informs me that the executive club number for someone I have never heard of was added by someone else I never heard of. I thought I would check on BA.com anyway as I have booked a ton of flights recently and maybe the reference number is mine but the e-mail is in error but sure enough the booking is for a family of 4 heading to Orlando next month, I swiftly log out before I accidentally downgrade them or somesuch.

I guess somewhere in the BA system their booking reference got mixed up with my e-mail address but this seems like a fairly hefty breach of security. If I were a more malicious type I could get this families passport numbers, DOBs and other personal details simply by using the information in the e-mail. It further concerns me who might have got e-mails with my bookings! Maybe I'm coming over a little daily mail but it does seem a little lax that their system could mix something like this up.
Hello Joely,

Obviously this is a matter we take very seriously and is not a regular occurrence.
We of course will look into this immediately, can you please PM me any details that you have regarding this which will aid our investigations.

regards

Gavin
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