# General Business Category > Scam Alert Forum >  Debt-in External 3rd party debt service

## ians

I get a message from Standard bank to say my information has been fraudulently obtained from debit-in ... an external 3 rd party recovery partner ... Standard bank inform me that they have enhanced their security to protect my accounts.

I think nothing of it .. because I had just opened an FNB account the same day ... I thought maybe FNB had done some sort credit checks or something. 

Today I get another SMS informing me that Telkom had sold my personal information to debit-in at some point in the past and now there has been a security breach.

I should apply for protective registration with the SA fraud prevention services to prevent the use of my details. 

I am thinking spam ?

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## ians

I see there is an agency called debit-in agency. 


https://www.debt-in.co.za/

This is the problem with people selling your personal information to every tom dick and harry.

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## Dave A

I doubt the information was "sold" by the bank to Debt-In.

The problem is Debt-In was hacked. And they are a data operator for many financial institutions.




> Debt-IN, a debt recovery solutions partner to many South African financial services institutions, including African Bank, has announced that a ransomware attack by cybercriminals has resulted in a significant data breach of consumer and employee personal information.
> 
> It is suspected that consumer and personal information of more than 1.4 million South Africans were illegally accessed from Debt-IN servers in April this year.


Now that we have POPIA, these financial service providers are obliged to let their clients know of the breach and potential risk. Previously in situations like this, you had to rely on reading the news plus knowing that when you fell in arrears with your bank, they had passed on your private particulars to the debt collection service (which they have covered for years already when you signed up to do business with the bank).

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