Document Dump: 40 Boxes of Ameriquest Mortgage Records Found in Dumpster

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October 19, 2007 9:26 AM

Police are investigating how the personal files of 1,200 Ameriquest Mortgage customers turned up in a dumpster at an Atlanta apartment complex. Police say the 40 boxes of records contain sensitive financial information, including customers' credit histories, bank account information, tax and salary records and social security numbers.

Management of the Montego Apartments complex immediately alerted police after the abandoned boxes were discovered last month. 

Deputy Chief Mike Burrows of the DeKalb County Police Department told the Blotter on ABCNews.com that the documents would have been a treasure trove to identity theft criminals. 

According to Burrows, "If anyone finds it, they can delve into the files and assume people's identity and obviously open credit accounts and obtain loans on vehicles, mortgages -- the general financial identity fraud situation that the whole country's facing."

The police are now trying to get to the bottom of how the files ended up in the dumpster. 

According to Burrows, the three Ameriquest offices in the Atlanta area closed in 2005, and none were in the immediate vicinity of the apartment complex.   

Police say the case files involved mortgage customers from a number of different states, including Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. Authorities plan to alert customers identified from the documents so that they can check their records to confirm they were not fraud victims.

An Ameriquest representative has reviewed some of the documents, and spokesman Chris Orlando says the company believes they were stolen from Ameriquest in late 2002. 

According to Orlando, "We take the security of our records very seriously...and have been working to locate the person or persons responsible for the theft. We are pleased that the files have now been secured by authorities in DeKalb County, and we are working with local law enforcement to determine what information is contained in the files and who stole them."

Deputy Chief Burrows says so far his department has uncovered no evidence that the files were stolen from Ameriquest.

As previously reported on ABC News, Ameriquest is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging the company misled and defrauded borrowers. Without admitting wrongdoing, the company agreed in 2006 to pay $325 million to settle a similar case brought by 49 state attorneys general.

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