Man pleads guilty in identity theft scheme targeting homeowners

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to an identity theft scheme that targeted homeowners.

Federal documents say that from November 2016 to 2017, Jihoon Sun worked with at least two other men to steal account information of people with home equity lines of credit.

Then, they got fake licenses, proofs of insurance and fake paystubs and walked into local banks.

>> Channel 9’s Brittney Johnson walks us through the complicated way he got away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in the video at the top of this page.

Channel 9 reached out to the victim banks impacted in this scam, PNC, TD Bank and BB&T.

PNC statement: 

"PNC generally does not comment on pending criminal matters. However, PNC has numerous safeguards in place designed to protect PNC customers’ privacy and security, to reduce risk and to stay ahead of potential threats."

TD Bank statement: 

"At TD Bank, we take the security of our customers' accounts and information very seriously. We thoroughly investigate fraud complaints and work closely with law enforcement to take appropriate action, as we did in this case. TD Bank utilizes industry best practices in an effort to safeguard customer accounts and the information of our customers, and we provide tools and information to help customers do the same. Due to privacy concerns, we cannot discuss our customers or their account activity."

BB&T statement:

"BB&T is strongly committed to the protection of our clients’ information and financial assets. For example, before a client can make a transaction with a teller at a branch, they are asked for photo identification. There are also several ways clients can protect their personal identity and financial information. We recommend that clients consistently review their account balances through online banking or the BB&T’s U mobile app, by calling 800-BANK-BBT (800-226-5228) and by signing up for mobile alerts. Any suspicious activity should be reported to us immediately. BB&T clients can learn more about protecting their information from scams and cyber threats on Security Central at www.bbt.com/security."

Cox Media Group