17 Million Countrywide Customers Receive Credit Monitoring After Data Breach

Written on August 27, 2010 – 1:58 am | by Chloe Gatenby

A federal judge granted final approval on a settlement between Countrywide Financial Corporation and around 17 million customers on Monday. This was a result of a large data breach that left the large group at a high risk for identity theft.

Bank of America, who now owns Countrywide, will provide free credit monitoring for the 17 million individuals whose financial information was exposed. The group includes anyone who obtained a mortgage and anyone who used Countrywide to service a mortgage prior to July 1, 2008.

Any victims of identity theft also could be reimbursed up to $50,000 for each time their identity is stolen. They would have to prove they lost something of value, weren’t already reimbursed and that the identity theft stemmed from the Countrywide breach.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs say Countrywide Financial had all their clients’ financial information including mortgage information, credit card, and Social Security numbers and birth dates.

The lawsuits stem from the arrest of Rene Rebollo Jr., of Pasadena, Calif., a former senior analyst for Countrywide, and Wahid Siddiqi, of Thousand Oaks, Calif. Federal investigators said Rebollo used a flash drive to download data from about 20,000 customers a week for two years from 2006 through August 2008.

Rebollo then sold the information to Siddiqi for $500 and earned a combined $50,000, federal investigators said. Siddiqi pleaded guilty in 2009 to 10 counts of fraud and admitted to selling the information to third parties, including an undercover FBI agent.

Rebollo has pleaded not guilty to a new indictment handed up in May and is awaiting trial.

Countrywide has said that it worked closely with the FBI and federal investigators and that the security breach does not appear to have resulted in anyone’s identities being stolen.

Identity Theft Protection Services