Maryland Comptroller explains errors that exposed thousands of social security number, steps to resolve it

Baltimore-Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman told Wjz Investigates that her office will no longer include social security number of sent 1099-G tax forms following a printing error exposed to the personal information from thousands of Marylanders.

“We are really, really sorry that this happened,” Lierman told Wjz investigator Mike Hellgren. “We’re taking it really seriously and we’re doing everything we can to do it right.”

Many victims were the ones who received relief payments after the most important bridge breakdown.

What went wrong?

The 1099-G tax form the controller’s office sent had a person’s name and address on the outside, but someone else’s data inside.

“My message is that we take their safety seriously and I am deeply apologetic to this mistake,” Lierman said. “I know they are nervous, so we want them to know that they can always reach out to us.”

She said the state prints more than 800,000 1099 forms each year.

“At one point the printer simply worked and had to be started again, and when it started again, it went a dataset below where it should be so that the pages did not match properly,” Lierman said.

Her office will now see checks during the pressure process.

Affected taxpayers frustrated

Many of those who received the wrong shipments are frustrated, worried about identity theft after their social security number was sent to people they don’t know.

“If I have all this girl’s information, it means that someone else has all my information and I am quite worried about it because they can go and ruin my credit,” Jessica Butrim told Hellgren after receives the wrong form.

Privacy protection

Lierman said she has taken new steps to protect privacy.

“Unfortunately, this agency has for a long time been in practice including personal numbers of the 1099s,” the controller said. “As soon as I found out this on Monday, we stopped it. There’s no need to put a person’s social security number on a form sent, so we’ve made process changes to make sure something like this can never happen again .

She said her office has identified that everyone affected.

One year free credit monitoring

The controller told Wjz that all affected people will have one year of free credit monitoring and that it could be expanded.

“If there are cases where there are reasons why we can consider doing this longer, we are absolutely open to it. I take very seriously – and our agency takes very seriously – the security and security of all marylanders. I’m deep regrettable that this happened, but I also want Marylanders to know that we take this seriously, improve our process and we want her back.

The Comptroller said she got quick action with a full answer less than 24 hours after she learned what happened.

She urges everyone with questions to reach out to her office. Anyone who is affected can e -mail here.