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Wednesday May 22 05:22 PM EDT Bank Customers' Information Sold To Identity Theft Ring Milwaukee WISN 12 News WISN 12 News has learned a southeastern Wisconsin bank teller sold lists of customers' financial records to an identity theft ring and the bank didn't tell its customers until 12 News started knocking on doors. Colleen Henry and Kent Wainscott team up in this 12 News Investigation. Most bank customers probably assume their bank would be quick to advise them of any breach of their financial information. But there's a catch, 12 News investigated and found that the bank isn't required to tell you anything, Wainscott said. Eight months after the bank learned of the thefts, thousands of customers remain in the dark about whether their personal information was sold to an identity theft ring by a teller at the Pewaukee branch of Bank One. So far, only a few of those victims have been identified. Henry knows, because she was one of the few. Donald Higgins' identity crisis began with a phone call from an agent of the United States Secret Service. "Told me somebody's been using your Social Security (news - web sites) number," Higgins said. " He said, 'He's charged a car to your credit card.' I said, 'My credit card? I don't think I have a card high enough to take care of a Jaguar," Higgins said. The Rockford retiree drives an Oldsmobile Cutlass, but unbeknownst to him, he was proud owner of both a Jaguar and a Chrysler Sebring. An identity thief bought the cars using Higgins' financial records. "The bank should've known when they checked the ages. Cause I'm 1929. I'm 72 years old and the one that did it was 30 years old I believe it was, yeah," Higgins said, Detectives arrested 29-year-old Donald M. Higgins in that Jaguar which police said he bought using the financial information of 72-year-old Donald R. Higgins. As police continued their identity theft investigation, it became clear, the 72-year-old Higgins was just one of thousands whose credit information was sold by a crooked teller at the Pewaukee branch of Bank One. According to police reports, the 21-year-old teller "confessed to ... printing out customer names, addresses, Social Security numbers as well as individual account information, such as credit card and loan numbers, balances, dates of birth and places of employment." Police said Lanaya Young then sold the information to a friend from Chicago, Donald M. Higgins, "so he could get credit cards and phones using those customers identities." When police arrested Young last September they found printouts from Bank One computers listing account information of more than 250 customers. Young told police the names were but a fraction of those she printed for Higgins, saying she didn't know what he did with the rest. Police said the Young/Higgins connection applied for credit cards using Greg Karolzak's Bank One information way back in September. Eight months later, it was 12 News that broke the bad news. "September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May. That's eight months," Karolzak said. "So Bank One never explained to you what happened to your information," Henry asked. "No, no, no," Karolzak said. In fact, police said they notified Bank One of the stolen credit information last September. Police reports document a meeting with Bank One last March, when detectives advised that "the 253 identities recovered were merely a minute amount of the number of identities printed by Lanaya Young." Still, Bank One took no action to warn its customers thieves may be using their credit information, not even big business customers like Walter Eberhardt. "This is news to me. Needless to say in about five minutes, I'm going to be on the phone," Eberhardt said. Identity thieves applied for a credit card using Eberhardt's Bank One records last fall. Eberhardt assumed it was linked to losing his wallet last year until 12 News showed him the police report. "You're surprising me, because I thought it was because I lost my purse with credit cards in it, and now you're telling me that story is entirely different," Eberhardt said. Police found Eberhardt's business account information in Young's stash. She'd scribbled his address and phone number next to his Bank One account balance, a balance in excess of a $1 million. "You're a pretty big account holder. You think they'd be worried about your business," Henry said. "Bank One didn't tell you this?" "No," Eberhardt said. Police estimated thousands of people might be in the same position and not all of them Bank One customers. "So did you ever hear from Bank One?" Henry asked Higgins. "Where is Bank One? I don't even know where Bank One is. Is that out of Milwaukee? I've never heard of them," Higgins said. Back in Rockford, Higgins is still trying to figure out the connection since he's never done business with Bank One. The Secret Service (news - web sites) agent eventually confirmed Higgins' credit information got into Bank One's computer because of a car loan Higgins co-signed for his son eight years ago -- a car loan from Rockford's First State bank, which First State eventually sold off to Bank One. "It must be at least eight-nine years, that car's been paid off, he's got a different one and everything," Higgins said. Shortly after the Secret Service call, Higgins also learned the thieves had used the credit information from Bank One to tap into his checking account at Firstar Bank. "It was a lot less money in there than I should have had, $1,640 to be exact, and I called the bank and they says, 'You haven't been making payments on your car loan, so we just took it out of your account,'" Higgins said. "I said, 'I don't have a car loan." The thieves used Higgins' name to open accounts at Best Buy, Goodyear Tire and JC Penney. With several months of unraveling, Higgins cleaned up his credit mess by himself, but given the breach of his privacy and potentially that of thousands of others, Higgins can't believe 12 News notified customers before Bank One did. "Somebody gonna end up suing them if they end up doing that again and they'll probably make out all right, too," Higgins said. Bank one declined an on-camera interview, but answered 12 News' questions: Are victims limited to the Wisconsin area? Bank One said the teller tapped into its national database, accessing names from across the country, but it believes most were from Wisconsin. Why did a teller have access to information like job histories and loan accounts? Bank One said a teller might need such information to do her job, although the bank is now reviewing what data tellers can access. Why didn't the bank notify potential victims until 12 News did? Bank One said it's been working on a response and didn't have all the information it wanted to share with customers. Bank One added, "We should have acted more quickly. We are very sorry we didn't contact customers sooner." Bank One is only contacting the 250 people whose names police collected as evidence, but if you are concerned or have questions, you can call (414) 765-3000. The phone line will be staffed from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Bank One said that it will provide a free credit report for any Bank One customer who is concerned about their credit. If you're not a Bank One customer, but would like to check your credit, you can get your credit report by going to any of these Web sites:
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