Richfield Man Faces Identity Theft Charges (from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage customers)

KARE11 News (NBC Affiliate) ^ | 11/12/2003 11:13:45 PM | KARE

[Egon]

Richfield Man Faces Identity Theft Charges

A Richfield man is facing charges for stealing customers' identities while working at a bank mortgage processing office.

Wells Fargo hired thirty-two-year-old Calvin Robinson through a temporary agency it says it believed was running run background checks on employees. Police say Robinson started stealing credit almost immediately after he was hired.

Police say he confessed to some of the alleged crimes, but Robinson told KARE 11 he did nothing wrong.

The agency said it runs background checks only when clients request the service.

Wells Fargo, which fired Robinson after three days, had given him access personal information about the company's mortgage clients. The company discovered Robinson was using the password to access their computer records from home.

While the company fired Robinson, it appears it may not have called the police. An informant called Richfield police officers, who eventually unraveled the scheme.

-- snip --

[Egon]

This is a local TwinCities story so far. I'm trying to ascertain from Wells Fargo, Minneapolis whether or not they've been able to determine a group of customers who are at risk (including me). Also unclear as to whether the customer base affected would only be local, state, or national. I'll post more as soon as I find out anything.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Thanks

[WaterDragon]

Wells Fargo is a sleazy bank to begin with. They were the first to start offering illegals opportunity to bank without the usual identification required from the rest of us. I wouldn't have ANYthing to do with them.

[Egon]

They were the first to start offering illegals opportunity to bank without the usual identification required from the rest of us.

Yeah, I caught that when I was searching posts to see if this story was already out there.

Too late for me, I guess.

[Lokibob]

bump

[Egon]

Man. There is nothing out there on the local media about this after Wednesday.

Here's hoping my emails stir something up...

[halfdome]

But they also give full pay to reserves and national guard when they are called to duty and unable to come to work.

[Auntie Mame]

Something sort of interesting about Wells Fargo is they do not put their bank address on their checks or their statements. If you want to find out at what branch a certain account is located, you have to telephone their 800 number and subject yourself to the third degree.

[holyscroller]

"While the company fired Robinson, it appears it may not have called the police. An informant called Richfield police officers, who eventually unraveled the scheme."

Boy you really looked out for your customer's welfare, didn't you wells Fargo? So is this crook behind bars yet?

[Egon]

I received the following return email from my local bank:

Thank you for your inquiry. Due to the serious nature and complexities of the ongoing investigation Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has set up a special department accessed through our customer service department. The number to call is 1-800-288-3212 to gain more information on your personal account. To further protect client information the company has not sent out a master list. If this does not meet your needs please feel free to contact me directly. Thank you.

I called the number provided (which turns out to be primarily an automated way to get general account information about your mortgage (balance, amount due, when, pay-by-phone, etc.) with the option to speak to a live body.

When I got a lady (in Minneapolis) on the phone, and told her my concern. She told me the following information (order is mine):

• Customers compromised were local (Twin Cities and/or greater Minnesota?)
• Customer group was relatively small, and all had been contacted by Wells Fargo
• This list was derived with the help of the local police and was believed to be comprehensive
• She offered to set up a password on our mortgage account
• She offered contact information on the various credit reporting agencies
• She stated (verbally) that Wells Fargo would pay to have credit checks run if I had reason to be concerned that my information had been compromised.
• She did not have information regarding the timeframe of the breach (as far as when it happened).
• She was not aware of a special site offering information about the incident.

I haven't decided yet how I wish to proceed.