Stolen laptop had Social Security numbers of Flagstar bank customers

It was a phone call that you don’t want to get.

Someone from Flagstar bank called the other day to notify my wife that there was, ahem, a “possible” security problem she should know about.

Seems a laptop was stolen that contained a bunch of Social Security numbers. One of the numbers on the stolen laptop was my wife’s. The caller was polite, provided no more details except to say a letter would be forthcoming and it would explain the situation further, along with an offer the bank was making to purchase a year’s worth of identity protection for my wife… in case laptop-stealing bad guys tried to use her Social Security number for nefarious identity fraud purposes.

Sure enough, a few days later a Flagstar letter did arrive, explaining that the laptop belonged to “a vendor.”

Dated Nov. 25, it said:

“We have no reason to believe that the files with this information will be accessed or used inappropriately. However, in the interest of caution, we felt it was important to inform you of this incident. We also have taken steps to place an alert on your home equity checking account and other deposit accounts in our system.”

Wait a minute. A vendor had a file with my wife’s Social Security number? What was a bank vendor doing with the Social Security number of my wife? What kind of vendor?

The vendor is a company that helps Flagstar with services the bank provides, according to a company official reached by WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, MI, which also learned of the problem.

That’s not a very helpful answer. That could have been the janitors who clean the bank or the people who print checks or the window washers. There are all sorts of vendors. I really want to know which one had my wife’s name on a laptop. And… why?

And how many other Flagstar customers were also on the laptop?

The notification letter didn’t explain, though it noted that Flagstar indeed was indeed willing to pay for a year’s worth of identity fraud protection and credit monitoring, which my wife will certainly take.

But it sure doesn’t give me much confidence in our bank.