Current and Former Weather Shield Employees Still Feeling Effects of Data Breach
Monday, February 17th, 2014 -- 1:58 PM
-Current and former employees of the company Weather Shield are still feeling the impact of a data security breach that occurred years ago.Bonnie Englebretson, a Greenwood resident and retired employee of the former Greenwood Weather Shield, found out someone tried to file a tax return under her name.
Bonnie initially received a letter asking her for more tax information to complete her return. However, she didn?t need to file that year. Bonnie initially ignored the letter she received that had her and another person?s name on it.
Bonnie said, "The first one I ignored because it had a different name on it. Had my number, my Social Security number, though. But, it had my name and another name. So, I just thought it was their mistake or some phoney mail. So then, I waited and didn't do anything and I got another one, but it had just my name on it. So, I called H&R Block and they said, 'you can't ignore them, bring it down' and they helped me with it."
H&R Block told Bonnie what was going on.
"They were stealing my identity," said Bonnie. "Trying to get money from my taxes, but they ran into a blank on mine because I did not file that year. We were both retired and didn't have to file."
Bonnie had to notify the federal government that someone was trying to use her identity.
Bonnie said, "We filled out all the information and sent it all in to tell them that someone was trying to steal my identity and showed them all the tax information for this year that I didn't have to file."
When I asked Bonnie if she thought it was because she worked at Weather Shield that someone tried to steal her identity and had her social security number, she answered immediately.
"Oh, yes," said Bonnie. "I didn't think I'd be caught because I'm retired, but that didn't matter to them. They're using so many of them, that's what H&R Block figured, that they stole all these identities and they are using so many per year. So, it will happen for a long time."
A spokesman for Weather Shield said they are still hearing of a few instances happening this year. But this is an open and ongoing investigation with the FBI.
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