Recently, Nadia Figueroa, a bank teller at a JP Morgan Chase bank in White Plains, New York was convicted of being part of an identity theft ring that stole $850,000  from the accounts of innocent depositors in the bank.  Figueroa obtained personal and account information of hundreds of the bank’s customers with accounts of more than $50,000 and then provided that personal and account information to two accomplices, Tyrone Lee and Anthony Davis who created fraudulent checks and identification documents which they used to impersonate the real account holders and withdraw funds from their accounts at other branches of JP Morgan Chase in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  Lee and David had already been convicted of grand larceny, identity theft, criminal possession of a forged instrument and scheming to defraud.

TIPS

This case serves as a reminder that it is not just foreign hackers who are attacking banks through cyberattacks, but also criminal, rogue employees who steal from banks by misusing their positions and the information to which they have access.  This should be a wake up call to banks and other financial institutions to provide constant security programs to minimize the opportunity for this type of crime.  It also is another reminder to all of us that the price of security is eternal vigilance.  Everyone should regularly monitor all of their financial accounts for any evidence of anything out of the ordinary.  The sooner you recognize a problem, the easier it is to fix.