Banks may be under- reporting their security breaches or simply stymie outside probes through the subpoena barrier. Research by third parties, though, shows a continuing problem with theft. There’s little reason to think that it will get better after massive heists of customer information from Equifax, Home Depot, Target, and other corporations that maintain databases on hundreds of millions of customers, usually including addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, lines of credit accounts, and other information required to steal another person’s identity. “I tend to think that all of my credit information is already out there” and available to be readily stolen, notes Ted Rossman, an industry analyst for Bankrate.com. “If it hasn’t of freedom of information requests seemed low; banks may be under-reporting their security breaches or simply stymie outside probes through the subpoena barrier (see below). Other recent searches and FOIA requests with regulators like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Comptroller of the Currency turned up only a handful of complaints.
When I scanned my Transunion file, though, something else popped up. My birth year was wrong and there was other incorrect information. That’s not something that I would’ve erred on since I regularly check my credit files. Did someone get into my file and put in his or her birth year to steal my credit? Transunion didn’t have an answer and neither did the detective, although he thought an outside intrusion was a possibility. Were the check fraud and fake credit apps related? I don’t know, and neither did the detective, although in multilayered fraud, it’s being done. ‘CALL OUR CLAIMS DEPARTMENT’ At first, when I talked with my local police detectives about a month ago, they expressed frustration. Banks are not volunteering banking information – even when an investigation is requested by the customer. My bank, one of the largest in the country, but which I am not naming because I don’t want to give cyberthieves any additional information, required a subpoena through the state attorney in our county to acquire records I was willing to provide. All I wanted to know was how that information was stolen. When I asked my banker how the institution’s investigation was proceeding, he nonchalantly told me to “call our claims department.” Oh, great. I’m sure a call center on another continent is right on top of this, I said to myself sarcastically. As you can imagine, banks are loath to tell law enforcement that their account security can be – and is being – compromised. The numbers provided to me following a series
been compromised, it will be soon.” There are numerous back doors for cyberthieves.
According to Emily Wilson, vice president of research for Terbium Labs, a data protection company, “Fraudsters have a wide range of
32
January 2020
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog