Social security numbers, names inadvertently given away by state tax office

9/22//2014

Created: 09/21/2014 9:50 PM
By: Caleb James, KOB Eyewitness News 4

An Albuquerque woman says she got more than she asked for at the state tax office. Along with a receipt she was handed a list of a half-dozen names and social security numbers.

There are numbers everywhere. We use them to keep in touch, to organize ourselves, and some numbers mean a whole lot more than others.

Lorraine Gallegos was doing some organizing last month. She went to the Albuquerque state tax office on Aug. 15 to pay the balance on her personal income taxes.

"Like a day later, I was going to check my receipt. And this is what was on it," she said.

Gallegos was shocked* to see a list of six other people's full names and social security numbers on that receipt.

"I wonder who got mine," Gallegos said.

She called the office, nervous she'd even seen those numbers, but says the reaction from a clerk wasn't what she expected.

"She said, 'Well we just make errors,'" Gallegos told KOB.

It wasn't hard for KOB to track down one of the women on that list.

Imagine a stranger calls you up on a Sunday afternoon and reads you your own social security number over the phone. Well that's what she had to face Sunday. .

The woman didn't want to be identified, but the 20-year-old says she can't believe that her most personal of numbers could have made it into someone else's hands.

"Just knowing that the number you read me was my exact number," said the woman. "And I'm just wondering, who else has my social security number. What are they doing with it? How many people have it?"

Gallegos says she hopes she's the only one who has any of these numbers, because they could have wound up in much worse hands.

She says after no concern from the tax office, she decided to call KOB.

And for the victim we spoke with, knowing her number has been out there for over a month is like no other feeling.

"Why wasn't I contacted before that this was happening, by them directly? Why did I have to hear it from you," the victim said.

Right after KOB spoke with Lorraine Gallegos, the state tax office was alerted and provided them with a copy of the document Gallegos was given.

A spokesman with the office says this is serious and that they are launching an aggressive investigation to find out what happened. He said the taxation secretary has already been notified.

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