At least 87 cases of identity theft have been reported by employees of Schield Family Brands.
Schield includes four central Wisconsin window and door manufacturers, Medford-based Weather Shield and Mosinee-based Peachtree, Vetter and Crestline.
Current Schield employees and those who have worked for the company at any time since 1992 were targeted in the thefts, which include charges on retail credit cards and identity theft related to state and federal tax returns, the company said in a news release.
Read more in the Wausau Daily Herald.
Jeff Starck adds that the Secret Service is investigating and also provides some additional details:
Marathon County Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Bean said his department has investigated at least a dozen identity theft cases in connection with Schield. The department was notified March 24 by the Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection after investigators with that agency noticed a large number of victims with connections to Schield, Bean said.
About 12,000 current and former Schield employees have been notified about the information breach, Bean said. He had no idea how many of those might actually have been victimized. The Secret Service is the lead investigating agency for the case because the investigation goes across state lines, he said.
“We haven’t seen a case to this scale before,” Bean said.
The Wausau Daily Herald obtained an April 13 letter from Andy Jensen, the corporate general manger for Schield, to a former Peachtree employee. In the letter, Jensen wrote that 20 victims found fraudulent charges made on their Best Buy credit cards. Employees were urged to cancel their cards, check their credit scores and report any fraudulent charges to police.
Read more in the Wasau Daily Herald.