Employment Identity Theft Lawyer

Employment identity theft occurs when someone uses another person’s Social Security number or other identifying information to obtain employment or report wages under that person’s identity.

Unlike financial identity theft, the immediate objective is not necessarily to obtain credit or steal money from an existing account. The thief is using someone else’s identity within the employment and wage-reporting system.

The victim may have no contact with the employer and no reason to know the identity is being used. The problem may surface later through an IRS notice, Social Security earnings record, tax issue, background check, government correspondence, or another record showing employment the victim never performed.

Net Law Advocates represents individuals nationwide in identity theft, data breach, and privacy matters. When employment identity theft follows a breach involving Social Security numbers or employee records, identifying the source of the compromised information can also become relevant to potential legal claims.

What Is Employment Identity Theft?

Employment identity theft generally involves the unauthorized use of another person’s identity information for employment.

A Social Security number is particularly important because employers use SSNs for wage reporting and tax purposes.

Someone may provide another person’s SSN when starting a job, causing wages earned by the identity thief to be reported under the victim’s number.

The IRS describes employment-related identity theft as occurring when someone uses another person’s Social Security number to obtain employment. The IRS may identify the issue when income reported under an SSN appears to have been earned by someone other than the legitimate taxpayer.

Employment identity theft can occur even though the victim never worked for, applied to, or communicated with the employer reporting the wages.

Employment Identity Theft Is Different From Employee Data Theft

The terminology can be confusing.

An employee data breach occurs when information maintained about employees or former employees is exposed or compromised. That information may include Social Security numbers, payroll records, tax information, addresses, direct-deposit information, or other personal data.

Employment identity theft occurs when someone actually uses another person’s identity for employment.

The first event can potentially lead to the second, but they are not the same.

An employee whose SSN appears in a breach has experienced exposure. If someone later uses that SSN to work under the employee’s identity, there is evidence of actual identity misuse.

Why Social Security Numbers Are Central to Employment Identity Theft

Employers generally report employee wages using the worker’s Social Security number.

That creates an opportunity for misuse when someone possesses another person’s SSN and enough additional information to present that identity during the hiring process.

The Social Security Administration uses reported wages to maintain an individual’s earnings record. The IRS also receives wage information connected to taxpayers.

Unauthorized use can therefore leave records within more than one government system.

This is one reason Social Security identity theft can take several forms. The same compromised SSN might be used for employment, credit fraud, tax fraud, or other identity-based activity.

How Can You Discover Employment Identity Theft?

Employment identity theft is often less obvious than an unauthorized credit-card charge.

The victim may not lose money from an account or receive a bill associated with the fraud.

Instead, warning signs can include:

• An IRS notice concerning wages from an employer you do not recognize
• A Social Security earnings record showing unfamiliar income
• Tax records containing wages you did not earn
• Government correspondence connected to unfamiliar employment
• A background or employment-related record containing inaccurate information
• Tax complications caused by income attributed to your SSN
• Evidence that your Social Security number was used by another worker

An unfamiliar employer name should be investigated before assuming identity theft occurred. Employers can operate under legal names that differ from the names consumers recognize, and payroll reporting errors can happen.

The key question is whether income or employment activity genuinely belongs to someone else who used your identity.

IRS Notices About Employment-Related Identity Theft

The IRS has procedures for situations in which it identifies potential employment-related identity theft.

For example, the IRS currently uses Notice CP01E to tell taxpayers that the agency believes another person may have used their Social Security number to obtain employment.

Importantly, the IRS states that receiving CP01E does not mean the taxpayer owes additional tax on wages earned by the person who misused the SSN. The notice also states that the taxpayer does not need to amend a return solely because of the employment-related identity theft.

The instructions in a particular IRS notice should be followed because procedures can differ depending on how the issue was identified.

Employment Identity Theft and Tax Identity Theft Are Not the Same

Both can involve a stolen Social Security number and both can create IRS records, but they describe different conduct.

Tax identity theft generally occurs when someone uses another person’s identifying information to file a fraudulent tax return, often in an attempt to claim a refund.

Employment identity theft occurs when someone uses another person’s identity to work.

For example, a person who provides a stolen SSN to an employer and earns wages under that number is engaging in employment identity theft. A person who files a fraudulent tax return using the victim’s SSN is engaging in tax identity theft.

The same victim can experience both forms of misuse, but evidence of one does not automatically establish the other.

Check Your Social Security Earnings Record

A Social Security earnings record can provide another way to identify possible employment misuse.

The Social Security Administration maintains a record of earnings reported under an individual’s Social Security number because those earnings are used to determine eligibility for and the amount of certain Social Security benefits.

SSA encourages individuals to review their earnings histories and report inaccuracies.

An unfamiliar amount does not automatically mean identity theft occurred. Reporting errors are possible.

But wages that clearly do not belong to you may warrant further investigation, particularly if there are other signs that your SSN has been compromised.

What Should You Do After Discovering Employment Identity Theft?

There is no single step that corrects every record potentially affected by employment identity theft.

The response may involve several agencies or organizations depending on what occurred.

Follow IRS Instructions

If the IRS contacts you concerning employment-related identity theft, follow the instructions in the notice.

Do not include wages you did not earn on your tax return simply because they were reported under your SSN.

Preserve the notice and any correspondence concerning the issue.

Review Your Social Security Earnings History

Check whether unfamiliar wages appear in your Social Security earnings record.

If the earnings record is incorrect, follow Social Security Administration procedures for correcting it.

Keep copies of documents showing the discrepancy and any corrections made.

Report Identity Theft

IdentityTheft.gov provides a process for reporting identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission and generating a recovery plan based on the type of misuse involved.

The documentation can also help create a record that another person used your identity.

Look for Other Forms of Misuse

Someone who has enough information to use your SSN for employment may potentially use the same information elsewhere.

Review your credit reports and financial accounts for activity you do not recognize.

Employment identity theft does not necessarily mean financial fraud has occurred, but discovering one form of SSN misuse is a reasonable reason to check for others.

Should You Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN?

An IRS Identity Protection PIN, or IP PIN, is designed to prevent someone else from filing a federal tax return using your SSN or ITIN.

It does not prevent someone from using your Social Security number for employment.

However, the IRS advises recipients of its employment-related identity-theft notice that they can obtain an IP PIN to protect their federal tax account.

That distinction is important.

The IP PIN can help protect against tax identity theft that might occur using the same compromised SSN, but it does not solve the employment misuse itself.

How Can Employment Identity Theft Follow a Data Breach?

Employment identity theft requires identifying information, and data breaches can be one source of it.

A breach involving Social Security numbers may occur at an employer, payroll provider, healthcare organization, financial institution, educational institution, government entity, or another organization maintaining sensitive personal information.

An employer breach can be especially relevant because employee files may contain combinations of:

• Names
• Social Security numbers
• Dates of birth
• Addresses
• Tax forms
• Payroll information
• Copies of identification documents
• Banking information
• Dependent information

Those combinations can potentially support several forms of identity theft.

The existence of a breach does not establish that exposed information was later used for employment identity theft. But documented misuse after a breach involving the same identifiers may warrant investigation.

A Data Breach and Employment Identity Theft Can Be Separated by Time

Identity misuse does not necessarily occur immediately after information is stolen.

Personal information can potentially circulate or remain usable long after the original security incident.

A person might therefore receive a breach notice and not discover employment-related misuse until much later.

That time gap does not establish or eliminate a connection between the events.

An investigation may need to consider when the information was exposed, when unauthorized employment began, which identifiers were used, and whether there are other possible sources of the compromised information.

Employment Identity Theft Can Affect Former Employees

A former employee’s information can remain in payroll, human resources, benefits, and archival systems after employment ends.

A breach affecting those systems may therefore expose the personal information of both current and former workers.

Former employees should not assume that an incident involving an old employer cannot affect them simply because they left the company years earlier.

What matters is whether the organization still possessed their information when the security incident occurred and what data was compromised.

What If the Employer Using Your SSN Is Not the Organization That Lost It?

More than one organization can be involved in the chain of events.

For example, one company might experience a breach that exposes a Social Security number. An identity thief may later provide that number to an unrelated employer.

The employer where the thief works and the organization that originally maintained the compromised information occupy very different roles.

Determining potential civil responsibility therefore requires identifying what each party actually did.

The fact that an employer unknowingly received a stolen SSN does not establish that the employer caused the original identity theft. Likewise, the organization that experienced a breach is not automatically liable simply because employment misuse later occurred.

Preserve the Records That Connect the Events

Employment identity theft can be difficult to reconstruct later if documents are discarded as individual problems are resolved.

Useful records may include:

• IRS notices
• Social Security earnings statements
• Tax transcripts
• W-2 information you do not recognize
• FTC identity-theft documentation
• Data breach notification letters
• Correspondence with government agencies
• Records correcting inaccurate wage information
• Credit reports
• Evidence of other identity misuse
• Communications with an employer associated with the fraudulent wages, if any
• Records of expenses or other consequences

A timeline can also be valuable.

Record when you learned that your information was compromised, when the unauthorized employment apparently occurred, when you discovered it, and what steps you took afterward.

Can You Sue After Employment Identity Theft?

Potentially, depending on how the identity information was compromised and whether another party bears legal responsibility.

The person who uses another individual’s identity for employment is responsible for that misuse. A separate civil question may concern whether an organization failed to protect information later used in the identity theft.

When employment identity theft follows a data breach, an attorney may evaluate:

• What personal information the organization possessed
• Which information was compromised
• Whether the SSN was actually accessed or acquired
• Whether the compromised information matches the data used in the employment fraud
• When the breach and misuse occurred
• How the security incident happened
• What legal duties applied
• What harm resulted

Actual use of a stolen SSN can be significant evidence of identity misuse. It does not, by itself, prove which incident supplied the SSN or establish liability against a particular organization.

What Harm Can Employment Identity Theft Cause?

The consequences can differ substantially from financial-account fraud.

Potential effects include inaccurate wage records, tax complications, problems with Social Security earnings histories, time spent correcting government records, expenses related to the recovery process, and other consequences recognized under applicable law.

The same compromised identity may also be used for additional fraud, creating separate financial or credit-related harm.

Whether a particular consequence supports recoverable damages depends on the claims, jurisdiction, causation, and facts involved.

When May Attorney Review Be Appropriate?

Attorney review may be worthwhile when employment identity theft follows a known data breach involving Social Security numbers or other identifying information.

A closer review may also make sense when the misuse is accompanied by other forms of identity theft, creates significant tax or financial consequences, or can be factually connected to information compromised by a particular organization.

The legal analysis should focus on the source of the information, the evidence connecting the breach and misuse, the responsible parties, applicable law, and the harm that resulted.

Speak With Net Law Advocates About Employment Identity Theft

Employment identity theft can remain hidden until wages or employment records appear under a Social Security number that was never authorized for that use. Correcting those records is important, but the discovery can also raise questions about how the identity information was obtained in the first place.

Net Law Advocates represents plaintiffs nationwide in identity theft, data breach, and privacy matters. If someone used your Social Security number or identity for employment and you believe compromised personal information contributed to the misuse, contact Net Law Advocates at 888-913-2318 for a free, confidential consultation.