06:54 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 26, 2006

By MELISSA MCGUIRE / KVUE News

A Central Texas businessman says someone stole $15,000 from his bank account and a University of Texas hacker may be to blame.

Personal information from about 200,000 people associated with UT's McCombs School of Business was accessed illegally this month. UT officials said the breach begain as early as April 11.

One local homebuilder says five days after that, his account was maxed-out for four days straight.

When news spread this week of a security breach into UT's business school database, the school urged students, faculty, staff, alumni and corporate recruiters to flag their credit files with fraud alerts.

Michael Demarco says, for him and his business, Laurel Haven Homes, the alert came too late.

"I think it's odd that five days after this breach, I've got money coming out of my account," he said.

Demarco said there are two ways his information could have been stolen. He is a UT business school alumnus. His personal information, including his social security number, was on the school's database. He also had his business registered on the McCombs business school Web site as a corporate recruiter.

"It might not have been about individuals. It might've been about the businesses," he said.

Demarco said someone gained access to his business debit card account number and somehow created a phony card. The thieves, he's not sure how many, went on a $15,000 shopping spree in and around Austin. They spent his money at stores like H.E.B., Home Depot and Sears.

Demarco found 48 transactions. The thieves spent half the money on gift cards and the other half on merchandise.

"Luckily we caught it in three days. Somebody, this could be happening right now, and they won't know until their statement comes out," he said.

Demarco is working with law enforcement. He wants people to know what he didn't know beforehand -- that businesses are typically liable in cases involving debit cards, not banks.

"If you have a debit/credit card, you need to talk to your bank about what liabilities you have, because from what's happening to me, I'm about to get stuck with a lot of money," Demarco said.

The breach at UT is linked to computers in the Far East. A UT official said it's too early to tell who could be affected.

"We have to go back through tens of thousands of database logs to determine what happened and when," said Dan Updegrove, with the University of Texas.

Some bank experts say it's possible someone stole Demarco's bank number, and that this theft is unrelated to the UT hacker. Demarco isn't convinced.

He wants answers as to why he wasn't contacted by his bank when the card was maxed out for four days straight. The thieves tried to steal from him three more times after the bank froze his account.

Demarco's bank has decided to cover his losses.