Britain's biggest credit card company has sent out the wrong account details to thousands of customers.
More than 17,000 Barclaycard Goldfish credit card holders have received account statements containing personal information relating to other customers.
This includes the stranger's name, card number and previous transactions. Barclaycard has blamed the blunder on a 'printing error' and says customers will shortly receive the correct statements as well as a written apology.
It insists there are not enough details for anyone to make a fraudulent transaction. But the mix-up has done little to reassure customers that their account details are in safe hands.
Reader Roy Gosling, from Kent, says: 'This is very disturbing, particularly given all the fraud going on.'
Data protection watchdog the Information Commission Office has demanded an explanation from Barclaycard and wants to know what steps it is taking to prevent a similar incident.
A spokesman says: 'Failure to adequately protect personal details could lead to information falling into the wrong hands and ultimately the loss of customers' trust and confidence.'
A Barclaycard spokesman says: 'We would like to apologise to customers for this error and reassure them that the protection of customer data is extremely important to us and we are treating this very seriously. We are taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.'