The Bank of America is in the middle of yet another
identity theft scare.
Users of
the bank’s Visa Buxx pre-paid debit card service have been told
they may have had sensitive personal information compromised,
following the theft of an unencrypted laptop used by a service
provider to the bank.
The bank
wrote to Buxx users, warning them that customers may have had
names, bank account numbers and credit card numbers stolen in the
theft.
The laptop
was stolen in August and the bank was notified of the theft last
month. The bank has confirmed that information on the laptop was
not encrypted.
In March,
the bank confirmed that information on 60,000 of its customers had
been stolen by an identity theft ring. This came just a month after
Bank of America revealed it had lost back-up tapes containing the
credit card account records of 1.2m US federal employees.
Telecoms
company MCI recently caused an identity theft scare after one its
employees had her laptop stolen from an unlocked car.