FIRST ON 3: Social Security snafu will cost New Hanover County $10,000

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – Ramon talked with county commission chairman Jason Thompson about this story this morning, and Thompson told Ramon it will cost the county around $10,000 to provide credit monitoring to the people affected by the mistake.

He also asked Thompson, “What would you say to those who think the county has made a lot of mistakes lately?” Thompson glibly replied, “Fire me.”

Here’s the back-story….

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) – Officials say New Hanover County mistakenly put the Social Security numbers of dozens of people on a county website.

Numbers were published in two lists of property owners behind on their taxes.

County Manager Bruce Shell says the lists contained nearly 10,000 accounts, but only 163 Social Security numbers were published. It’s unclear how many people were affected because some numbers are linked to more than one account.

Shell says the county is sending letters to affected property owners and employees are calling those whose information was published.

Shell says the county will provide credit monitoring for a year to help prevent fraud.

HERE IS A COPY OF THE NEWS RELEASE SENT BY NEW HANOVER COUNTY:

Date: November 9, 2010

To: Area Media

From: Dennis J. Ihnat, Human Resources and Community Relations Director

Telephone: 910-798-77178

Fax: 910-798-7494

dihnat@nhcgov.com

Re: Posting of Delinquent Tax Accounts

In October, New Hanover County for the first time posted delinquent tax accounts on the County Tax Department’s web page. There were 9,854 delinquent accounts posted, of which 163 inadvertently included social security numbers.

When this problem was identified earlier today, the County immediately removed the posting from the web page and reviewed the listing to determine the extent of the problem.

Representatives of the New Hanover County Tax Department are in the process of contacting all 163 accounts by phone and letter to advise them of this situation, and will provide them with free fraud monitoring service.

Dennis J. Ihnat

Human Resources and Community Relations Director

New Hanover County, NC

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