Stolen-data Trove Offers Look Inside A Botnet

One customer — Yoon-Kee Hong, a 22-year-old college student from Suwanee, Georgia — had signed up for an account with Metro City Bank just a month before learning about the breach. He said he had not been alerted by the bank that his Social Security number and other personal details were stolen.

After being told about the breach by The Associated Press, which picked his name from the files provided by Prevx, the student said he planned to cancel his account.

"I cannot trust them any more," he said. "They're not doing what they're supposed to do. They didn't even notify me. It's like they're trying to hide it from their customers."

He later relented and decided to stay with the bank after he was offered a new account and promises of fraud alerts.

The bank said in a statement that it is notifying customers and is investigating the breach, refusing to comment further. State officials in North Carolina and Texas didn't return calls on the breaches there. The FBI didn't return a call about the breaches.

Such finds are becoming more common as the barrier lowers for crooks to jump into the online identity-theft racket. Top-of-the-line viruses, also known as Trojans, can be had for under $1,000.