Fraudulent ID authentication used to steal Pittsburgh city workers' information

Employees of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recently realized that they were victims of identity theft after they began receiving bills from PayPal for purchases that were never made, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports. A total of 29 employees from multiple city departments had their names, addresses and parts of their Social Security numbers swiped and used to make PayPal transactions. "Some transactions are already made to the accounts and the balances range from $40 to $3,000," detective Christopher Jordan of the Pittsburgh Police Computer Crimes Unit told the news source." "No one is out of pocket anything at this time." Although Jordan wouldn't reveal how the information was retrieved, he provided all department heads with a checklist of steps victims can take to safeguard against further theft. These included notifying banks, credit reporting agencies and PayPal. WPXI-TV adds that U.S. postal inspectors and other agencies are assisting in the investigation. However, Jordan fears the ordeal may be ongoing. "Identity theft is the gift that keeps on giving," he told the Gazette. "Most thieves will sit on the information for a period and use it years down the road."