Man sues bank over stolen information

A Millwood-area resident says he became a victim of identity theft because of his bank’s carelessness.

Donald S. Campbell sued Bank of America this week for unspecified damages, claiming employees of the bank’s Millwood branch negligently stored his and other customers’ personal records in a Dumpster outside the building.

Campbell and his attorney, Michael Kinkley, want a judge to certify the lawsuit as a class action on behalf of everyone who may have become a victim of identity theft when records were stolen from the Dumpster.

The lawsuit claims Bank of America violated Washington’s three-year-old Disposal of Personal Information Act.

Sometime in late December 2002 or early January 2003, someone pried up the padlocked Dumpster lid and removed several bags of records that were eventually to have been shredded, Campbell alleges.

Although bank officials were on notice of the problem at that point, they took no corrective action and more bags of records were stolen shortly after the first theft, Campbell says. In the second theft, he says, the thief broke the lock.

Bank officials concealed the thefts as well as their “failure to take all reasonable steps” to keep the records safe, according to Campbell’s lawsuit.

Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton said from her San Francisco office that she couldn’t comment on the lawsuit because the bank had not yet received a copy.

In general, she said, “Our first priority is the security of our customers’ information, and customers are not responsible for any unauthorized transactions.”

Campbell says, however, that the bank charged him three $22.50 handling fees for checks that bounced after thieves emptied his account.

Using the stolen information, thieves passed more than $1,500 worth of forged checks on Campbell’s account, his lawsuit says.

“My client doesn’t have large economic damages, but he certainly has a lot of frustration, which would be in the way of emotional damages,” Kinkley said.

Kinkley said Campbell had to change his bank accounts and try to explain why his checks were bouncing.

Campbell operates a small business, and some of the forged checks were passed at a shop whose manager is one of Campbell’s customers, Kinkley said.

“It was really embarrassing,” Kinkley said. “It was doubly frustrating because, originally, Bank of America denied his claim.”

Eventually, a multi-agency law enforcement task force found bags of the stolen records in a drug house, Kinkley said. Details of that investigation were not immediately available, but law enforcement sources said the scenario is familiar. Stolen records are as much a commodity among drug dealers as are stolen household goods.

“You’ve got all of these meth heads Dumpster diving, Internet hacking, raiding mailboxes, just anything they can,” Kinkley said.