October 11, 2008
Two banks send notices about possible ID thefts
100,000 with Wachovia, Bank of America affected
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - More than 100,000 customers of Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. have been notified that their financial records might have been stolen by bank employees and sold to collection agencies.
Bank of America has alerted about 60,000 customers whose names were included on computer disks discovered by police, bank spokeswoman Alex Liftman said yesterday.
"We are trying to communicate with our customers as promptly as possible," she said. "So far, we have no evidence that any of our customer information has been used for account fraud or identity theft."
Wachovia said it has identified 48,000 current and former accounts that might have been breached.
"The numbers have increased as we continue to receive additional names from police," Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips said yesterday.
Both banks are providing the affected customers with free credit reporting services.
In a separate case with the potential for identity theft, a laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 16,500 current and former MCI Inc. employees was stolen last month from the car of an MCI financial analyst in Colorado.
MCI spokeswoman Linda Laughlin said the car was parked in the analyst's home garage and the computer was password-protected. MCI would not comment on whether the data was encrypted.
The bank-record theft was exposed last month when police in Hackensack, N.J., charged nine people, including seven bank workers, in an alleged plot to steal financial records of thousands of bank customers.
The bank employees accessed records for customers of Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Commerce Bank, PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, and Wachovia and Bank of America, both based in Charlotte, said Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa.
Orazio Lembo Jr., 35, of Hackensack allegedly made millions through the scheme, Zisa said.
Authorities said they discovered the plot after they executed a search warrant at Lembo's apartment in February as part of a separate investigation. They seized 13 computers which contained details about the plan, Zisa said.
Lembo received lists of people sought for debt collection and turned that information over to the seven bank workers, who would compare those names to their client lists, authorities said. The bank workers were paid $10 for each account they turned over to Lembo, Zisa said.
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