Customers of Gainesville2Go might soon find emails from a different local delivery company in their inbox.
The popular food delivery service sent an email to their customers Friday stating that their customer email list was stolen by a former employee.
“We take very seriously this breach and intend to notify the appropriate authorities. Please ignore any email you may receive pretending to be us, not from this gainesville2go email account,” Gainesville2Go wrote.
A list was allegedly obtained about a month ago by then-employee of Gainesville2Go Jeremiah Loper after he exported the customer email list from a third-party email provider, said Jackson Bodiford, current manager of Gainesville2Go.
“Jeremiah had access to that email service. He’s the one who set it up in the first place,” Bodiford said.
However, Loper said he compiled the email list during his time at Gainesville2Go. He created an account with an email marketing firm, to which he uploaded the list.
“When I left the company I exported said list to a different format,” Loper wrote in an email. “I, as a co-owner of the business, from the account I created, downloaded a list that I had uploaded.”
Regardless, Bodiford said his company decided to warn their current customers.
“He has his own business,” said Bodiford. “We let people know in case he uses the list.”
Loper said that he has not used the list to send any emails.
“... As a co-owner when the list was created I may or may not have a right to use them,” Loper said. “That's why I planned on speaking with my attorney before I did any marketing with it.”
Loper, who just began his own delivery business Monday, said he believes the email was poorly timed.
“I opened my new business, 352delivery.com (Monday) and this is a direct attack on it and myself,” Loper wrote in an email. “Their timing seems a little odd doesn't it?”
Bodiford said he hasn’t noticed much of a change in business since the release of the reported email, and clarified there is no security risk with the exported list.
“A handful of customers have requested their card info to be deleted, which takes 10 seconds,” Bodiford said. “We instantly changed passwords and bank passwords within the software.”
Contrary to Bodiford’s comments, Loper said he was not fired from Gainesville2Go. Instead, he said he resigned as a result of problems with owner Andrew Gorrelick’s actions.
However, this is not the first time the delivery service has had some conflicts.
On April 4, 2013, about 8,000 customers received a profanity-filled email from the delivery company, followed by an apology email, according to Alligator archives.
An arrest was also made for fraudulent checks on Jan. 3. Michael Tatum, a former employee, reportedly wrote $40,000 worth of forged checks, according to Alligator archives.
Loper and Gorrelick reviewed business records when they noticed the series of forged checks, the first being dated Dec. 2, 2013. Tatum’s explanation was that the company was an “open business” and employees wrote their own paychecks from the main business account.
Kate Burns, a 20-year-old UF English junior, said she received Friday’s email from Gainesville2Go.
“Ever since then, I was wary about it,” Burns said.
Burns said she liked the service as a freshman because of the convenience, but now she is more careful about what information she gives out.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 - 4 on 6/10/2014 under the headline "Gainesville2Go email list allegedly taken by former employee"]
Update: This article was updated to include Jeremiah Loper's quotes. It was corrected from incorrectly saying Loper had stolen the email list and that he had been fired.
