IMGCAP(1)]
Wells Fargo Bank is warning 5,000 consumers nationwide that hackers stole key personal data, including Social Security numbers and driver's license information, from a customer database and could use the pilfered information to produce counterfeit cards.
However, the San Francisco-based bank does not know if the thieves manufactured counterfeit debit and credit cards with the stolen data.
"We don't know how the information has been used," Mary Berg, a Wells Fargo
spokesperson, tells ATM&Debit News.
Microbilt Corp., a security firm based in Kennesaw, Ga., notified Wells Fargo July 1 of unauthorized activity on the bank's access code to gather consumer data on the bank's customers and consumers who are not customers of the bank. Microbilt managed the database.
"We believe the unauthorized activity occurred in May and June from what
Microbilt has told us," Berg says. "We shut down the access code." The U.S. Secret
Service is investigating.
Wells Fargo is notifying consumers by letter. The bank also paid for a one-year subscription to Identity Guard, which protects consumers from identity theft.
In addition, the bank is working with the three major credit bureaus to prevent unauthorized financial activities from affecting the consumers' credit ratings.
