Customer Support - they have it wrong

I've recently signed up for Pipex Broadband, a service i have been using for some years (but had to changed because i moved house). It requires BT to do some work on their end and the waiting is now at 7 days (it was typically two before).

So i email customer support from the email account i used in the first place and get the reply:

In accordance with data protection laws, so that we can access your Pipex
account and advise you on your query, please forward the following information:

- Your Full name
- Your Pipex account number
- Your date of birth
- Two digits from your customer care password (If applicable)
- Your Pipex phone number
- Your address and postcode
- Your bank name

So i replied saying that with this information i a plain text email it could easily be intercepted and if so, all of the above information would be enough for someone to perform fraudlent activities as me! In short, this is insane - and BT had asked me for the same information - and others too. All this despite the fact i'm not asking THEM to send me any sensitive information (other than the status of my order).

They replied, again asking me for this data to "access" the account (which we all know is bullshit).

This is seriously wrong. There are two ways to fix this.

1. If you send from the email you originally signed up with, providing the correct reference number then you should get a response (assuming you aren't asking for anything too sensitive).

2. A private, encrypted area where you can review and send messages to the support team. Surely this is an obvoius solution to the place text email issues we have.

In short, you can't say that for data protection issues please send (in plain text) all the data you are trying to protect!