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March 15, 2006
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Macomb County sheriff's Capt. Anthony Wickersham said, "There is a General Motors website out there that employees can go to and find out information, but you could only get into it if you had social security numbers. And he still had over a hundred or so social security numbers. So he was getting into the system and getting into the account information and finding out what kind of vehicles they were driving and then emailing them."
Employees became suspicious because the e-mails came from a Yahoo address, sent from a library in Washington Township. The incident was reported to the police by GM Global Security and the case was referred to Macomb County Cyber Crime Unit.
"What was brought to our attention was that employees from GM were getting these emails from different accounts asking them quality assurance questions, how their car is and the color, but it was coming from an account that wasn't generated from General Motors," said Capt. Wickersham.
The security firm identified Green as a suspect, but deputies couldn't find him at his home, Wickersham said.
When Macomb County Sheriff's officers tracked Green down for an interview in late January at the Romeo District Library, officers said he was emailing GM workers from his Yahoo account.
A search warrant was issued and the information was confiscated. The information included names and Social Security numbers of 99 GM employees," Lama said in a statement.
"While we believe this was an isolated incident, GM will be notifying every individual contained in the file to alert them to this event and to encourage them to take precautionary steps to protect against possible identity fraud. GM Global Security continues to work with the law enforcement authorities to ensure no further risk of identity theft."
Green apparently got the Social Security numbers while working for a private security firm at the tech center, although officials weren't sure exactly how.
Green was arraigned Monday in 42-1 District Court in Romeo on eight counts of obtaining, possessing or transferring personal identity information, one count of using a computer to commit a crime and one count of stalking that was unrelated to the GM cases. He was released after posting 10% of a $50,000 bond.
Wickersham said Green didn't open credit card accounts with the information. He said Green enjoyed posing as a quality insurance agent and asking employees how their cars were running.
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