Just months after a cyberattack compromised employee and patient records, approximately 20 employees at Watsonville Community Hospital are reporting they’ve become victims of identity theft.
According to hospital spokeswoman Nancy Gere, “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.”
One employee, who chose to remain anonymous, shared that she had not yet filed her tax return. However, when she accessed her IRS account, it indicated an $8,000 refund was being processed. The employee noted that the refund was flagged by IRS agents.
The cyberattack occurred in December, and the hospital is now providing credit services to its employees. Gere stated, “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.”
The hospital is still investigating whether patient information was also compromised. Gere said, “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.”
The IRS offers several tips to prevent tax-related identity theft, including requesting an “identity protection pin” to secure returns and filing taxes electronically. The IRS also emphasizes that its agents will never contact individuals by phone regarding tax matters.
Michelle Pulido, a spokeswoman for the City of Watsonville, advises anyone who believes they are a victim of identity theft to contact the police, stating, “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.”
