It looks like employees of yet another town may have become victims of tax refund fraud, and the town is trying to determine the cause.
This time, the report comes from Stony Point, New York, where 30 current and former employees have reported that when they attempted to file their tax returns, they discovered that someone had already filed using their Social Security numbers.
The town learned of the problem on April 12, and posted a notice on their web site on April 13 that says, in part:
As of this time, it has not been determined whether the personal information was obtained from a source within the Town of Stony Point or from an outside source. In 2015, a private vendor that did business with the Town informed the Town of a security breach of the private vendors’ records that included Town of Stony Point employee information.
DataBreaches.net contacted Stony Point and spoke with the town supervisor, Jim Monaghan. It appears that the vendor being referred to was not a payroll vendor, but another vendor who has denied any responsibility for the current problems.
So the bottom line is that Stony Point joins the ranks of all-too-many entities this year where employees are reporting tax refund fraud and entities are investigating to figure out why. At the same time, the town is increasing its training and emphasis on improving security and good practices, such as avoiding clicking on links or falling prey to phishing schemes.
It’s a never-ending challenge.
I wish the town luck in tracking down the source of this breach, and will update this post if more information becomes available.