Can you trust your credit union tellers?

That is the implicit question raised by NY”s Attorney General  Eric T. Schneiderman.  The WSJ is reporting this morning that the man who holds the position known for  its unofficial title,” Aspiring Governor”, sent a  letter to large banks on Friday  warning them that their customers are at  risk from insider identity theft and urging them to be more alert to  employee conduct.. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/bank-tellers-draw-scrutiny-1433720000).

The AG’s letter is the latest in a series of steps taken  by his office highlighting the access tellers have to personal information.  For example, earlier this year his office secured a guilty plea from  a teller at a JP Morgan Chase branch in White Plains.  According to a press release,   she would target customers with common names and over $50,000 in their accounts. She would copy this customer data and smuggle it out to  co-conspirators who used it to create fraudulent checks and identification documents. These fake documents were then used to impersonate account holders and to withdraw money at bank branches in Westchester County, New York City and Long Island, as well as Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The AG’s letter is a reminder that, even as the financial industry gets swamped by increasingly sophisticated and well-funded cyber  thieves,  the core of your data security still must be based on knowledgeable employees who not only know the rules but are willing to follow them.

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