Salesman Steals Customer IDs, Opens Credit Card Accounts

A former car salesman at a Nissan store has been quickly terminated after he took personal information from customers and used it for his own personal expenses.

John Pagliaroli, a now former salesman at Rockland Nissan in Baluvelt, New York, stole personal information from customers and used it to steal their identities. Pagliaroli reportedly opened two credit cards during the week of Thanksgiving and spent over $3,000 combined on the fraudulent accounts. Pagliaroli is being charged with forgery, grand larceny and identity theft. Pagliaroli has been at Rockland Nissan for 5 years.

Tim O’Keefe, the general manager at Rockland Nissan, wasted no time taking action against the salesman who misused his position at the store to steal identities. Speaking to News 12 O’Keefe said, “Our customers are the most important … the lifeblood of our business, when someone makes a complaint against someone you’ve got to terminate them immediately.”

While this store fired a delinquent salesman for stealing identities, its usually dealers who are on the lookout for consumer identity thieves. Since the inception of the Red-Flags rule from the FTC, dealers both treat consumer info with intensive confidentiality, and act as watchdogs reporting suspicious persons who may be buying cars using false credentials. Violations of the red flags rule can come with fines of up to $3,500 per violation.

An employee reportedly stole consumer identities and the general manager wasted no time getting rid of the five-year employee in an instant. Do you admire his decisive action or in his shoes would you suspend the employee and launch an internal investigation? Finally, when it comes to identity theft compliance at your store, what is your strategy for protecting consumer information?