Missing receipts mystery: solved

Students who received a letter from Pitt about missing credit receipts can breathe easy. No one… Students who received a letter from Pitt about missing credit receipts can breathe easy. No one stole them; they just got tossed in the trash.

On April 13, Pitt spokesman John Fedele said that all students who used Student Health or its pharmacy from May 1, 2009, through Nov. 30, 2009, were sent letters reporting that receipts containing their names, credit or debit card numbers, card expiration dates and transaction dates of purchases made were missing.

The letter, signed by Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey, said the receipts did not have students’ medical information, security authentication codes or other “identifying” information.

Fedele recently said in an e-mail that the Department of Health and Human Services has released information supplied by the University’s internal investigation.

The update reports that the “documents containing protected health information were lost when an employee of the covered entity (the University of Pittsburgh) confiscated and eventually destroyed them.”

According to the update, “The breach affected approximately 8,000 individuals.”

The University, following the breach, is said to have “reviewed its policies and procedures for safeguarding the physical security of paper records,” and the employee who violated University policies by stealing the records was terminated.

While the investigation is still ongoing, Fedele said, “The University of Pittsburgh Police and local Financial Crimes Task Force has not found that any case of credit card fraud resulted from the theft of these receipts.”