Can Your Boss Steal Your Identity?
10 December 2006This sounds almost too weird to be true, but it’s actually happened a number of times. Mainly it’s a problem of smaller businesses with no controls on what management does with your personal information. But employers have pretty much every piece of information on you that there is. And that makes it extremely easy for an unscrupulous boss to commit identity theft:
ID-stealing bosses are the exception, but they are out there, says Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a leading nonprofit that provides information and support for fraud victims.
In fact, Foley started the center in 1999 after her boss used information on Foley’s tax forms to apply for credit cards and a cell phone. And earlier this year a judge in upstate New York sentenced a computer entrepreneur to seven years in jail for tax fraud and stealing the IDs of employees and friends.
That’s just one more thing to worry about, and there’s not much you can do because no one is going to even be able to employ you without a lot of personal information to deal with the IRS. I’d rely on services that give you constant updates on your credit reports if you’re worried about this one. It’s a good idea for anyone, and it’s only about $50 a year. Just be aware that if you see a request for a credit card or a loan on your report, even if it has something to do with your company, you should still adhere to the rule that if you didn’t request it, something is wrong.
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One Response to “Can Your Boss Steal Your Identity?”
December 20th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Interesting. My wife and I rent, and recently our landlord has requested we fill out a form listing quite a bit of personal information. Some of what they want, I find highly inappropriate (and usable for ID theft) and left those areas blank. For example, they wanted our SSNs, bank account numbers, credit cards and account numbers. An unscrupulous employee at the rental agency would have all the heavy lifting aready done for them if they wanted to steal identities. Do you think the questionarre is legal?