Watsonville hospital workers report identity theft linked to data breach
Just months after Watsonville Community Hospital was hit by a cyber-attack, roughly 20 employees at the hospital now say they're the victims of identity theft.
“We heard from a few of our employees that they reported there were fraudulent tax filings in their name, so someone else had tried to file a tax return in their name and they had received that notification from the IRS,” said hospital spokeswoman, Nancy Gere.
One employee who didn’t want to be identified told Action News 8 she had not yet filed a return but when she signed onto her IRS account it showed an $8,000 refund being processed she added the refund was flagged by IRS agents and not disbursed.
The reports of identity theft come just three months after hospital employee and patient records were compromised during a cyber attack in December.
“The investigation into the entire cyber event is ongoing it's a months-long process, right now we have no indication that any of our payroll information was breached at all but because it's still ongoing, we want to be sure to protect the employees,” said Gere.
The hospital is now assisting its employees with credit services.
“We're offering them credit monitoring services and the ability to also call through our employee assistance program to call financial and fraud identity fraud counselors, to walk them through all the things that any of us can do to protect our identities,” Gere added.
It's unknown if any patients have fallen victim to the identity theft.
Among some of the tax tips offered by the IRS is requesting an ‘identity protection pin’ that associates you and only you with your return. The IRS also suggests you file electronically to avoid your return and refund from being stolen. And remember IRS agents will never call you.
If you're a victim of identity theft, police want to hear from you.
“One of the most important things that folks can do while they're navigating through this, is filing a police report that's probably one of the first steps that you should be taking to build that paper trail, to have documentation of what it is that you're going through,” said Michelle Pulido, spokeswoman for the City of Watsonville.