NASHUA, N.H. (AFX) - A national payroll company accidentally faxed personal and payroll information to a Nashua man, exposing workers to potential identity theft.
Paul Dullea, a financial planner who lives in Nashua, said he received 121 pages of information Thursday from Automatic Data Processing Inc. The pages had the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and income information for at least 80 people who work for companies in Illinois, California and Florida.
Dullea contacted ADP, which he said sent him a fax apologizing for its mistake. ADP asked him to return the information and to sign a note stating he hadn't copied it.
The letter from ADP representative Marion Lang called the mistaken faxes 'an isolated incident.'
'Please be assured that we are taking every precaution to ensure that a similar incident does not occur in the future,' Lang wrote.
ADP, based in Roseland, N.J., provides payroll services to one in six private-sector workers in the United States, according to its Web site.
In a statement Friday afternoon, ADP said the payroll reports for three clients were intended to be faxed between ADP offices and were mistakenly sent to a third party. ADP apologized to its clients and is offering free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance to its clients and affected employees, which is under 100.
'ADP maintains numerous levels of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect confidential client information. We continually assess and invest in new technology to protect sensitive information, and upgrade our security practices and systems regularly,' ADP spokeswoman Jaclyn Savage said in the statement. 'The security of our clients' data is of paramount importance to us.'
As a financial planner, Dullea said he was alarmed.
'As soon as you have that information, you can start building up a fictitious (identity),' he told the New Hampshire Union Leader. 'That's the danger in it.'
Dullea said the data was for employees of three companies: Lingraph Services of Glendale Heights, Ill.; Fantasy of Flight, an aviation-themed tourist attraction in Polk City, Fla.; and Kanaflex Corp., a hose and tubing manufacturer with offices in Vernon Hills, Ill., and Los Angeles.
He said he contacted Lingraph's chief executive and read his Social Security number to him.
'He was all ears after that,' Dullea said.
The CEO, Michael Boskovic, said personal information for his 20 employees was exposed. After speaking with ADP, he said he believed the misdirected faxes were an accident, not the result of hacking or sabotage.
'I have been given an explanation,' he said. 'I've been given a game plan and that's why I feel confident it will be worked out.'
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