At last count, nine had been arrested and the accounts of 670,000 customers of Bank of America and Wachovia had potentially been compromised. With somewhere around 100,000 customer notification letters sent out (been watching my mailbox closely), investigators in the Garden State are promising additional arrrests.

Via Reuters and iWon.com:

More arrests coming in US bank theft ring

Monday May 23, 11:41 AM EDT

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At least two more bank employees will probably be arrested in the coming weeks over a scheme to steal data about customers at four major U.S. banks, a New Jersey police detective said on Monday.

Police in Hackensack, New Jersey, last month had charged nine people, including seven former bank employees, over the possible compromising of hundreds of thousands of accounts at Bank of America Corp., Wachovia Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Commerce Bancorp Inc.

At least 60,000 Bank of America and 48,000 Wachovia customers were notified that their accounts might be at risk, spokeswomen for the banks said. More bank customers may also have been affected.

"Sifting through the massive amount of computer information is an arduous task," said Hackensack Detective Capt. Frank Lomia in an interview. "We believe there were at least 200,000 to 300,000 breaches, based on financial records we have seen on DRL's computers, and the number could be higher."

The police called the scheme an attempt to steal customer account data and sell the information to collection agencies. There is no sign the breached account data was used to open accounts or obtain loans, a practice known as identity theft.

The alleged leader was Orazio Lembo, who advertised his DRL Associates as a firm that could supply bank account, balance and employment information to debt collectors, police said. More than 40 collection agencies and law firms bought the data, which DRL obtained from bank employees, police said.

Lomia said police largely finished the first phase of the investigation, which involved shutting Lembo's operations and informing banks of the problem. The second phase involves examining firms that bought the data, according to Lomia. He said Bergen County prosecutors and federal authorities are involved in the matter.

"We expect at least two more banking people to be arrested," Lomia said.

More here.

-- MDT

Labels: identity theft