2 arrested in data theft

Ok Countrywide, what are you going to do for damage control?

Sounds like a lot of your customers may have problems because of your employees.

Man up and do something, quick!

Sounds pretty grim when your financial organizations are so hard up they decide to steal identity of their customers.
This should carry heavy penalties for those engaging in such behavior.

Tom Joyce wrote:

Sounds pretty grim when your financial organizations are so hard up they decide to steal identity of their customers.
This should carry heavy penalties for those engaging in such behavior.

Financial institutions? It was a couple of individuals...

Those two need to be dealt with severely and Countrywide needs to do whatever is necessary to protect those that had their ID stolen.

So, what does one do now? I had past loans with Countrywide.

We were one of the victims. I called Countrywide hot line as soon as I received their notice.
They were absolutely no help. They said they couldn't answer any of my questions and
referred me to CA FBI. FBI answered all of my questions and didn't understand why
Countrywide wouldn't because that was the whole purpose in setting up Countrywide's
special hot line. Countrywide corporate will hear about this. Oh, one interesting fact I was told
by the agent who is handling the case was that this Robollo person used a computer that
he knew did not have special security on it! Seems to me Countrywide is at fault and why
would they not have the same security on all of their computers!

Dottie in Illinois wrote:

We were one of the victims. I called Countrywide hot line as soon as I received their notice.
They were absolutely no help. They said they couldn't answer any of my questions and
referred me to CA FBI. FBI answered all of my questions and didn't understand why
Countrywide wouldn't because that was the whole purpose in setting up Countrywide's
special hot line. Countrywide corporate will hear about this. Oh, one interesting fact I was told
by the agent who is handling the case was that this Robollo person used a computer that
he knew did not have special security on it! Seems to me Countrywide is at fault and why
would they not have the same security on all of their computers!

I am also included in the information sold by countrywides employee.
Do you have the FBI agents number thats handling this case? or a number to reach them? thank you so much!

This REALLY pisses me off. I got notification today that I was one of the "victims." The people at Countrywide where NO help. My mortgage payment is taken out of my account electronically each month and they could not tell me if my bank information was included in the fraud. Yay. Now I have to go change my bank numbers, in turn auto withdrawals I have, auto deposits I have. I asked that my mortgage loan number be changed - they won't doi it. All I was told, over and over again, is that "it's under investigation." And, "sorry for the inconvenience." If the dude was interviewed a month ago, why wait until now to tell the customers???? What a bunch of crap.

Same situation here. Signed up for the 2 years free credit report. Waiting to see if there is some sort of class action suite.
This really sucks. I work in the IT field and just was at a seminar on identity theft and it is scary on the things you have to go through to clean this mess up. One thing they said which was really bad, was unlike the leagal system where you are innocent until proven guilty, when somebody steals your identity and ruins your credit your are guilty unti YOU prove yourself innocent.

I am also a victim and recieved the letter last night. I had not heard of anything that was going on with these two men being arrested until just a few minutes ago. I recieved the letter and called the hotline immediatly. I was repeatedly told that they could not provide me any information due to " pending investigation" is anyone aware of any kind of class action lawsuit being brought against countrywide? Or a name or number for the FBI agent or agents handling the case? This is a major problem for me. I have been a victim of Identity theft years ago...and it took years to clean it all up! I can not go thru that again! I signed up for the credit monitoring service they provided and we will see how well that works.... but I have used the fraud alerts before..and trust me they can get around them!! Any info would be helpful. I am new to the whole situation!!!!

Dottie in Illinois wrote:

We were one of the victims. I called Countrywide hot line as soon as I received their notice.
They were absolutely no help. They said they couldn't answer any of my questions and
referred me to CA FBI. FBI answered all of my questions and didn't understand why
Countrywide wouldn't because that was the whole purpose in setting up Countrywide's
special hot line. Countrywide corporate will hear about this. Oh, one interesting fact I was told
by the agent who is handling the case was that this Robollo person used a computer that
he knew did not have special security on it! Seems to me Countrywide is at fault and why
would they not have the same security on all of their computers!

I'm sure the attorneys for Countrywide have advised the employees not to help or comment on the on going investigation. They probably figure that Countrywide will be sued for negligence and they don't want to do or say anything that might complicate matters.

whatado wrote:

<quoted text>
I'm sure the attorneys for Countrywide have advised the employees not to help or comment on the on going investigation. They probably figure that Countrywide will be sued for negligence and they don't want to do or say anything that might complicate matters.

I was told yesterday my son-in-law was also a victim of the Countrywide fiasco. From what my daughter told me, he was offered 2 yrs. free identity theft services from ????(I was in another room at the time, and din't catch that info). I thought: "Oh, BFD! What happens after 2 yrs.?" If I can get any more info for those similarly affected, I'll post it on this blog.

Yeah they are not giving any information but my best advise to all people effected should write the prosecuter of the case and let them know u are one of the persons victimized by these individuals.And to please keep u posted on the case. We all have to remember that we may not see anything on our credits for quite sometime...they could have sold that infomation to anybody to be used for anything (drivers liscense, passport, ect.) The unfortunate part for us is we may not be effected for quite sometime, and for that COUNTRYWIDE should be held resposible for not providing proper security and protection of their customers information. And I am sorry two years of credit monitoring is just not enough for me. This could effect us for many years to come..depending on what was given and for what purpose. The information I have found is that the prosecuting attorney name is Thomas Boeing...Please if anyone else has anymore info please feel free to respond.

Sorry Att. names is Thomas J O'brien

I just learned today about the breech that occurred starting over two years ago. Calling Countrywide is useless. They do not give you any information and just transfer you from one agent to another. I read an article on the web about a woman who was affected two years ago by a breech. Hello Countrywide you need to have handled this two years ago. I wish my mortgage was never sold to them. I would not reccommend them. They are scam artists. By the way I didn't receive a letter, I found out today about the breech via the news. Communication is not Countrywide's strong point. Thanks for letting me vent.

Countywide reps are worthless. The aren't trained, they just read off the same script!

I am victim too. I called the hotline to ask about my wife's information as we both own the mortgage together. They told me that her information was not stolen? How do I believe them? If they stole my information including name address, ss, mortgage number etc, how is it possible that my wife's information was not stolen.
I wish there was some place to check out lawsuit information.

send email to the email address:

marcus@finkelsteinthompson.com " This law firm is pursuing a Class Action Lawsuit: Countrywide Data Breach
August 22, 2008

On August 18, 2008, Finkelstein Thompson LLP filed a lawsuit seeking class action status against Countrywide Financial Corporation ("Countrywide"), a California-based company. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that Countrywide failed to maintain reasonable and adequate security procedures to protect against the theft of Countrywide customers’ and mortgage applicants' sensitive personal information. The complaint further alleges that as many as 2 million Countrywide customers and mortgage applicants may have had their sensitive personal and financial information, including social security numbers, stolen by a Countrywide employee and sold to unknown entities.

If you are a Countrywide mortgage customer or have previously submitted a mortgage application to Countrywide and wish to discuss your rights and interests in this matter, please contact Karen Marcus in our Washington, D.C. office atmarcus@finkelsteinthompson.c om

A letter from Countrywide letting me know that my information had been sold by a "Former" employee, which then explains to me what I HAVE TO DO TO PROTECT MYSELF!! I have been the victim of identity theft and it took the best part of eleven years of hard work to attempt to undo the damage. Experian was the worst reporting agency to attempt to convince them, I was the victim here, not the perpetrator!! Anyway, I want to be a part of a class action lawsuit against Countrywide. Please let me know if I can join a class action suit. Thank You

I too have been victimized, 3 times that I am aware of. The only account still active was my Mervyn's card - fraud charge there. Then, the SOB tried to open up a PG &E account, I am sure this was to send in and get a copy of my full credit report. And as of Saturday,(3/21/2009) on my Macy's card - again this SOB just walks into the store with my personal data and the stupid sales clerk becomes an accessory to store theft using my personal data.
I will be contacting the DOJ, FBI and the law firm above to see, what, if anything is going to become of this.
This is going to be a lifetime of HELL and
Countrywide doesn't want to take any responsibility.
A have a fraud alert, a security freeze, and 2 years credit monitoring - and still the theft occurs.
The only thing left is to change my SS#, and go through that hassel the rest of my life explaining to everyone, including prospective employers, as to why I had a previous SS#.

we also were informed of my husband's information
being stolen by a former CW employee, and the only want to compinsate by giving 2yrs of credit reporting.....how in the heck is that going to help us down the road!!! yes I to am interested in any info on a class action suit.........and NO their CSR"s are of no help what so ever