AG sues CVS over dumped customer records

Remember when a former identity thief found a bunch of personal documents in a Dumpster behind a closed CVS store in Liberty back in late March? So does Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who filed suit against CVS yesterday, accusing the company of failing to protect its customers' personal information. About 1,000 records — with information including credit card and Social Security numbers — were found March 19, and though Abbott said his office hasn't received complaints about the dumped records, the case signals the beginning of a probe into CVS's broader practices. "We don't know if this is an isolated practice," Abbott said at a news conference Tuesday.

According to the AP, CVS is accused of violating parts of the 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act, which requires the protection and proper disposal of sensitive personal information. The company could have to pay up to $50,000 for each violation if it is found guilty. The suit also accuses CVS of violating Chapter 35 of the Business and Commerce Code, which calls for businesses to develop disposal procedures for clients' personal information; if the company is found guilty of that, it could have to pay up to $500 for each record.

Though the incident in Liberty had the potential to cause a lot of trouble for the people whose records were in the Dumpster, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to stop shopping at CVS. "These are friends of mine and I don't want hard feelings with them," Cora Bechtel, one of the people whose records were recovered, said. "They made a bad mistake, but obviously they're going to pay for that."