Two million records containing Social Security numbers and private financial information were stolen and sold by a former employee of the corporation’s sub-prime mortgage division.
So far, the identities of 19,000 customers are confirmed to have been compromised.
Every Sunday for two years Robert Rebollo Jr., a senior financial analyst, went into the office and downloaded the files of 20,000 customers. The batches of files were then sold for $500 each.
Wahid Siddiqi is thought to have been a middle man who bought the information from Rebello, and then resold it to other mortgage companies, according to evidence gained by the US attorney’s office.
The FBI worked with a confidential informant who offered to pay Siddiqi $4,000 for thousands of customer files. Siddiqi assured the informant that the information was from Countrywide, contained full Social Security numbers and was “fresh,” according to the FBI.
No identity theft is known to have occurred yet. Countrywide—now owned by Bank of America—is offering two years of free credit monitoring to each of the 19,000 customers, and any others whose financial information is found to be compromised.
The credit monitoring service will notify the Countrywide customers after an identity thief has stolen their identity and opened fraudulent accounts.
For information on how Life Lock–the industry leader in identity theft protection–can help to keep your identity and financial information secure, go to LifeLock.com. Use promotion code Defense and receive a discount on LifeLock enrollment.
Countrywide financed the house we bought in 2006. How can a corporation this huge have such lax security! Maybe this explains why I got daily calls from mortgage finance companies before I enrolled in LifeLock.