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All banks should perhaps operate a central webpage/ site with various options: No unsolicited advertisements via: Phone, SMS, Email [choose accordingly]. No circulation of personal details to any other external agency or bank subsidiary. e.g.: [pict source]

Look what some drivers are leaving exposed Vehicle break-ins are up by 15%, but S'poreans are still blase about security THE police have reminded motorists time and again against leaving valuables in plain sight when they park and leave their cars. Posters in carparks remind motorists: 'Have you locked your vehicle? Did you leave any valuables behind?' But motorists here remain cavalier about preventing theft from their vehicles, although it takes little more than ensuring that valuables are locked away in the boot or, at the very least, not left on the seats or floorboards. Police figures indicate a sharp rise in the number of vehicle break-ins: Between January and March, 465 vehicles were hit, about 15 per cent more than in the preceding three months. There were 1,568 car break-ins last year - four a day. Only 196 people were arrested. Last week, two men were nabbed on suspicion of breaking into more than 200 vehicles. Homing in on unattended goods vehicles, the duo netted $20,000 in loot in a year. A Straits Times check on more than 500 parked cars in Toa Payoh, Bishan, Serangoon and Commonwealth found one in six with something valuable left on the seats. These included sunglasses, designer bags, briefcases and cellphones. Drivers guilty of this said dismissively that it was easier to leave things lying around than to stow them in the boot. Mr Stanley Tan, who was in a multi-storey carpark in Bishan, was nonchalant about putting his $160 Crumpler bag 'with nothing valuable in it' out of sight, despite being warned that thieves might smash the windows of his Nissan Sunny to get it. The 21-year-old, who is waiting to enter university, said: 'If they want to smash, let them smash, lah!' Even former victims of car break-ins did not seem chastened. Mr Ow Chun Choy, 59, lost a CashCard with $30 in it to a car thief just five months ago, but he was spotted leaving his CashCard in the in-vehicle unit (IU) at a carpark in Serangoon. The factory owner put it down to inconvenience: It is troublesome to keep removing and re-inserting the CashCard, especially with more Electronic Road Pricing gantries in operation these days. Delivery driver Cledwyn Chim, who also left his CashCard in his delivery van in Toa Payoh, believed that car thefts happened only after dark. 'This won't happen to me because I don't leave it in overnight,' he said. Some do play it safe. Delivery supervisor Dennis Ong, 44, who lost $2,000 worth of copper wires from his van early last year, said he now tries to park in busier, more brightly lit areas. Aside from the loss of the wires, the company he worked for had to pay $100 to replace the cut rubber gasket and rear window of the van. Mr Ong said: 'It would help if there were more closed-circuit television cameras in the carparks.' The police keep reminding motorists that the best course of action is to put valuables out of sight. As technical officer Veloo Vengadasalam, 58, said: 'The public is also at fault if they invite trouble.' A Straits Times check on 527 vehicles in carparks across the island found 95 to have valuables inside - that translates to about one in six drivers. Here are what some people left in the backseats of their cars: VIDEO CAMERA