Robert Charles Reed has been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role as the mastermind behind an identity theft ring in which Reed recruited dishonest Wells Fargo employees to provide him with confidential information of  seventy-five Wells Fargo customers including their names, birth dates, accounts numbers and Social Security numbers which he used to steal $580,332 from these victims.  The rogue Wells Fargo employees that aided in the plot have all been fired by Wells Fargo and have pleaded guilty to their crimes.  Presently they are awaiting sentencing.

TIPS

Although we are all cognizant of protecting our confidential information from being obtained by outside hackers, the problem of corrupt employees at the various places that have our personal information is a major problem, particularly in the banking industry as I have written about numerous times in the past.  There is little you can do to protect yourself from this type of crime other than to regularly monitor all of your accounts for indications of impropriety or fraud.