An off-field error by a Yankees season ticket representative lead to a spreadsheet containing the personal information on more than 20,000 New York Yankees season ticket holders being sent out to several thousand Yankees season ticket licensees.
The file contains information on season ticket accounts including, account numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. As a result, Yankees’ fans may very well see an increase in spam and targeted phishing attacks, and possibly an increase in harassing emails from Boston Red Sox fans.
According to Barry Petchesky at DeadSpin.Com, the file listed 21,466 season ticket plans, which represented all of the “non-premium” seats.
According to Petchesky, “The release of the spreadsheet can be traced to a simple mistake by a hapless Yankees season ticket rep, one wrong click revealing the team’s records to all of his contacts. Monday morning, an account executive sent an email to nearly 2,000 clients, a regular informational newsletter that they receive periodically. According to several fans who received the email, a file labeled “STL Homestand Newsletter (042511)” was attached that contained the information on all non-premium ticket holders — not just the rep’s own licensees.”
The Yankees have acknowledged the incident and have notified its customers. In an email to clients last night, the Yankees wrote:
We are writing to inform you about an accidental electronic distribution of information that you have previously supplied to the New York Yankees.
Monday evening, April 25, 2011, an employee of the Yankees sent an e-mail to several hundred Yankees Season Ticket Licensees. The e-mail mistakenly attached an internal Yankees spreadsheet that listed the following information associated with your New York Yankees account:
• Your name, and the address, phone number(s), fax number, and e-mail address that you previously provided to the Yankees.
• Your seat numbers, Yankees account number, Yankees account representative name, and the ticket package code associated with your account.
NO OTHER INFORMATION WAS INCLUDED IN THE DOCUMENT THAT WAS ACCIDENTALLY ATTATCHED TO THE APRIL 25TH E-MAIL. THE DOCUMENT DID NOT INCLUDE ANY BIRTH DATES, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, CREDIT CARD DATA, BANKING DATA OR ANY OTHER PERSONAL OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION.
Please note, immediately upon learning of the accidental attachment of the internal spreadsheet, remedial measures were undertaken so as to assure that a similar incident could not happen again.
The Yankees deeply regret this incident, and any inconvenience that it might cause.
Petchesky also pointed out that NYYFans.Com forum members are working through the spreadsheet and attempting to do some financial analysis. Apparently one user came up with the following stats, though these numbers are NOT verified: 2,179,237 total subscriber tickets sold . 26,904 full season equivalents. 17,686 separate subscriber accounts. The forum member also estimated ticket revenue of about $131,978,910 for total non-premium season tickets.
