Four computers containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information of some Wells Fargo & Co. borrowers were stolen last month in the third such security breach in a year, the San Francisco bank said Tuesday.
Wells Fargo said the thefts occurred in early October from the Atlanta office of Napa, Calif.-based Regulus Integrated Solutions, which handles billing for banks.
The computer files included the names, addresses, loan numbers and Social Security numbers of some Wells Fargo customers with student loans and mortgage escrow accounts, according to bank spokeswoman Julia Tunis.
Identity thieves frequently use Social Security and loan numbers, but Tunis said there was no indication that the stolen information had been misused.
She said a "relatively small percentage" of Wells Fargo's 4.9 million mortgage customers and 890,000 student-loan borrowers were affected but declined to be more specific about the number of victims or about the circumstances surrounding the theft.
Wells Fargo, the largest bank based in California, is a longtime customer of Regulus, Tunis said.
Regulus executives declined to comment.
It was unclear whether any of the stolen computers held information about people who bank at institutions other than Wells Fargo. The Gwinnett County Police Department in Georgia is investigating the thefts.
Founded in 1995, Regulus is one of the largest U.S. companies focusing on billing and money transfers, with 2,700 employees and 4,000 clients, according to its website.
As required by a California law that took effect last year, Wells Fargo notified affected customers in letters sent out last week. Tunis said they lived throughout the nation but were concentrated in the Western and Midwestern states where Wells Fargo has full-service bank branches.
The letters were the third batch Wells has had to send out in 12 months to notify customers that financial secrets were compromised, each time as the result of stolen computers.
The first incident occurred last November in Concord, Calif., when a burglar stole a laptop computer from the office of a marketing consultant working for Wells Fargo. The laptop contained names, addresses and account and Social Security numbers of thousands of customers who had taken out personal lines of credit, Concord Police Sgt. Steve White said.
