Chapter 264 Who Is Behind the Sale of Employee Data?

Chapter 264 Who Is Behind the Sale of Employee Data?

Jacob's Adam's apple bobbed.

"I don't really remember..."

The person across from him didn't say anything, just pulled his chair forward a bit.

Jacob's forehead started to sweat.

He suddenly stood up and reached into his pocket.

"Who are you people? I'm calling the police!"

The person at the door moved, walked over in two steps, pushed him back into the chair, and pulled the phone right out of his hand.

"Sir, sit down."

Jacob's face turned deathly pale.

"What do you want? To rob me? I'm telling you, there are cameras here!"

His voice was already shaking.

The door opened.

Craig walked in.

He was about six foot two, dressed in a black suit, and he looked even more composed than the two men at the door.

He sat down across from Jacob and spread open a folder on the table.

"Jacob, forty-three years old, local. Three years ago you registered an interior design studio called Softline Interiors, registered capital of five hundred thousand dollars, actually paid in eighty thousand. The company is just you and your wife, plus a part-time intern."

Craig turned a page.

"Last year your total revenue was two hundred sixty thousand dollars, net profit less than ninety thousand. Last month you just borrowed a hundred fifty thousand for cash flow, the interest isn't cheap, is it?"

Jacob's mouth hung open, unable to close for a moment.

"I'm not here to rob you, I just want to clear up one thing. Abigail's phone number, who gave it to you?"

Jacob froze.

He looked at the bodyguards at the door, then at Craig, his mind racing through various thoughts.

"You're... people from Ms. Thomas's side?"

Craig didn't answer, just looked at him.

That look wasn't fierce, could even be called calm, but it sent chills down your spine.

Jacob was silent for about ten seconds.

Then he gave in.

"I got it from a middleman. He used the name 'King' on Facebook, and he said he could get contact details for employees inside Summit Tech Group's design department, five hundred dollars per contact. When I saw Abigail's name on the list, I paid for her number."

Craig wrote down a line on the paper.

"What were you planning to do with her number?"

Jacob rubbed his hands together, looking a bit embarrassed.

"I wasn't going after her personally... I wanted to get to know Matthew through her."

Craig's pen stopped.

"Matthew?"

"Right." Jacob spoke faster and faster, as if eager to clear himself. "Word's been going around in the industry that Abigail and Matthew have an unusual relationship. Gonzalez Corporation has three commercial complexes opening in the second half of the year, and the interior design projects are big deals for small companies like ours. I figured if I could establish some connection through Abigail, then use her to get in with the Gonzalez family..."

His voice got quieter with each sentence.

"That's all there is to it."

Craig looked at him.

"Do you know what Abigail's actual relationship with the Gonzalez family is?"

"No idea." Jacob shook his head. "I just heard people say she used to work for the Gonzalez family and seemed close to Matthew. What their exact relationship is, I really don't know."

Craig stared at him for several seconds.

This person was telling the truth. There were no signs of lying in his eyes, only pure panic and a self-preservation response.

"The other people who bought numbers? Same purpose?"

"Pretty much." Jacob answered. "I've talked to two of the other bosses, they also wanted to find opportunities through the Gonzalez family. Business is tough these days, who doesn't want to find stronger partners."

Craig closed the folder and stood up.

"As for this 'King', send all your chat history with him and the payment records to this number."

He placed a business card on the table.

"If everything you've told me is true, this doesn't have much to do with you, and we're not going to go after you. But the contact information you bought for five hundred dollars needs to be deleted from your phone right now."

Jacob nodded repeatedly and took out his phone to start deleting.

Craig walked out of the private room and sent Ethan a message in the hallway.

[These people weren't coming after the Hubbard family, they wanted to use Ms. Thomas to connect with Matthew. The source of the information is inside Summit Tech Group, someone's selling employee data.]

Ethan's reply was just one sentence: [Go investigate.]

That evening, nine o'clock.

Craig took the chat records and transfer screenshots Jacob provided and went straight to Summit Tech Group's design department.

Dashiell was waiting for him in his office.

Craig handed over his phone, the screen showing the Facebook chat interface with "King." The profile picture was a landscape photo, Instagram was closed, and the profile page had almost no information.

But the transfer records were clear.

Jacob wasn't the only one buying numbers. Just from this chat record alone, there were at least seven transactions, amounts ranging from three hundred to eight hundred dollars.

After Dashiell finished reading, his expression darkened.

"This person is definitely inside your company." Craig said. "I need to access the complete access logs from your HR system, and all employees' external communication records from the past two months."

Dashiell didn't hesitate and immediately called in the IT department head.

The system check took less than an hour, and the results came out.

The IT head placed a spreadsheet on Dashiell's desk, his hands shaking a bit.

"Mr. Blackwell, the problem is serious."

In the HR system, over the past month, six different accounts had repeatedly accessed the employee information database. Three belonged to HR, two to the design department, and one to reception.

These six people used their access privileges to pull phone numbers, home addresses, and emergency contacts for hundreds of employees from the system, including Abigail.

Then, through that "King" Facebook account, they sold this information at prices ranging from three hundred to eight hundred dollars per record.

They weren't just selling Abigail's information, but an entire batch of data. Abigail was just one of them.

After Dashiell finished reading the spreadsheet, he sat in his chair without saying a word.

About half a minute later, he picked up his phone and dialed Abigail's new number.

"Abigail, I'm sorry."

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"You found them?"

"We found them. Three people from HR, two from the design department, and one from reception. The six of them were in on it together, and they sold at least over a hundred employees' records."

Abigail didn't speak.

"I'll organize all the evidence and hand it over to the police. These people will be taken away tomorrow." Dashiell's voice was very low. "This is a management oversight on my part that affected you."

Abigail was silent for a few seconds.

"Mr. Blackwell, this isn't your fault. You've already done more than enough."

After hanging up, Dashiell wrote down the names of those six people one by one on paper and stared at them for a long time.

He'd been at Summit Tech Group for many years, and this was the first time he'd encountered something like this.

The next morning.

The six employees involved were escorted by company security to the conference room.

Fifteen minutes later, the police arrived.

All six were taken away on the spot, walking from the third floor to the first floor, through three entire floors of hallways.

All their colleagues saw this scene.

John stood at his office door, watching the backs of those people being led away, the coffee cup in his hand long gone cold, but he still hadn't drunk from it.

He recognized two of them. One was from the design department, who always chatted with him about stocks in the break room. The other was from HR, who had helped him print contracts last month.

These people, right beside him, colleagues who came to work and ate lunch together every day, had been selling company employees' information behind their backs.

John went back to his office and closed the door.

He noticed a detail.

The foreign man who came to the company today to assist with the investigation was very tall, wearing a black suit, and spoke with an accent.

Where had he seen this person before?