H & R Block Employees Accused Of Identity Theft

by Leroy James, Tax-News.com, New York

03 January 2003

Some customers of tax-preparation market leader H&R Block have been victims of identity theft, according to a complaint filed by the US Postal Inspection Service against four of Block's employees, accused of stealing personal details which they used to divert the victims' mail - including tax refunds - and to set up credit card accounts for their own expenditure.

One of the four, Ivy Johnson of New Rochelle, worked at a Block office in White Plains during the tax-return season, between December 2000 and April 2001, and is accused of stealing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and dates of birth from at least 27 customers.

Block, one of the firms making up the Free File Alliance, a consortium of electronic tax-filing companies set to provide free access to e-filing of their tax returns for 78 million US tax-payers this spring, wasn't prepared to comment on the case when asked. A spokesman for the Postal Inspection Service said Block did not willingly cooperate with the investigation. "We had to get subpoenas," he told a newspaper.

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