Thread: NV:Thousands of Pulte Home Owners at Risk for ID Theft

Alyson McCarty, Reporter
Thousands of Pulte Home Owners at Risk for ID Theft

Updated: Dec 26, 2008 05:14 PM PST

Thousands of Pulte Home Owners at Risk for ID Theft
2:58


A break-in at the offices of one of Nevada's largest homebuilders has exposed the company's home buyers to identity thieves.

The theft at the Pulte Homes Nevada facility happened more than a month ago but home buyers are only now being told. Some 16,000 Pulte homeowners are just now receiving a letter in the mail.

The letter issued by Pulte Homes informs its customers that on November 13th, a box containing computer backup tapes was stolen from its Nevada facility with data including customer names, addresses, drivers' license numbers and financial account numbers.

The letter also urges customers to consider closing their accounts and placing a fraud alert on their credit file as precautions.

New Pulte homeowner Dave Coleman only found out about the theft after Eyewitness News informed him one of his neighbors received the letter. When Coleman tried to contact Pulte by phone to find out if he's among the 16,000 customers affected, he got a recording telling him the the company is closed for the holidays. He's not happy about the way Pulte is handling the incident.

"I'm a bit frightened and very disappointed because I haven't been notified. I think I should have been notified the day it happened. We've all seen the news stories about the horrors of identity theft and how expensive and time-consuming it can be," said David Coleman, a Pulte homeowner.

Like other Pulte homeowners right now, Coleman wants to know why it took more than a month to start informing customers about the theft, what if any safeguards were in place to prevent those backup tapes from being stolen, and what is Pulte doing now to make sure it won't happen again.

A Pulte spokesperson says the company did act as quickly as it could to inform customers believed to be affected by the security breach but that took some time to sort out.

To date, the Pulte spokeperson says there is no indication that any of their customers have been the victim of fraud or identity theft as a result of the incident.

The company is encouraging those customers and employees affected by the incident to take advantage of its offer for a free one-year membership to a credit monitoring service, which also includes $25,000 in fraud insurance.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=9582856

Wonderful......

I just bought my Pulte home in Nevada.................

Thanks for the info

Hope you're not affected grandmasmad