Worker charged with ID theft

A state contractor gained access to the identities of 1,200 accident victims at the state Department of Industrial Accidents and stole the identities of at least three people, opened credit card accounts in their names, and rang up thousands of dollars in jewelry and other purchases, according to court documents.

Frances Osborn , 56, of Hingham, used her position at the state agency to obtain personal information, including Social Security numbers, home addresses, and extensive injury records, the court documents say.

The case points to the easy access to thousands of files at the agency, which regulates the state's workers' compensation system. Osborn obtained the file of a woman with whom she shared a birthday in the agency's voluminous records, then used that woman's Social Security number to obtain one of the credit cards, the court documents say.

"She stated that she had gotten the SS# from some paperwork that she saw while engaged in her duties at the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents," a police report filed in the case says.

In the wake of Osborn's arrest on Jan. 23, Henry Swiniarski , the agency's commissioner, ordered new limits imposed on access to agency data.

"We are conducting a thorough review of all security procedures," he said in a statement released by the agency yesterday.

"All of us at the Department of Industrial Accidents deeply regret what happened," Swiniarski said. "We take our public trust very seriously, and we are taking immediate steps to ensure that this situation does not happen again."

On Wednesday, the agency mailed notices to the 1,200 claimants whose data Osborn obtained, advising them to place a fraud alert on their credit files.

A spokeswoman said the agency delayed issuing the notice for more than a week to give officials the chance to investigate "the extent of the situation."

"We have determined that up to 1,200 names have been compromised," the agency says on its website.

Osborn began work at the agency's 600 Washington St. offices in January 2006, after being interviewed by agency personnel, said Linnea Walsh , the agency spokeswoman. Osborn was a subcontractor to a subcontractor to a contractor approved to provide services to the state, Walsh said.

Walsh said she was unsure whether a background check had been performed on Osborn, who at the time of her arrest was named in an Abington police warrant accusing her of larceny by check.

Walsh said she was also uncertain of the extent to which data was protected against misuse with computer firewalls within the agency.

When they searched Osborn's home, police found evidence that Osborn had expropriated a large store of data from the state agency. Police "opened a folded stack of paper work," the police report says, "and immediately saw a long list of personal information, including names and social security numbers."

Medway police Sergeant William Kingsbury and Officer Matthew Reardon conducted the investigation after Susan Osborn of Medway went to police about online credit card purchases at the website ShopNBC. She said she had not made purchases at the website, but was called by a credit card company seeking payment.

Police eventually traced the Internet protocol address used for some of the purchases to the Department of Industrial Accidents. One of Frances Osborn's supervisors told police he had recently become concerned with her activity of the Internet and knew she frequently went to the ShopNBC site.

During an interview at the state agency on Jan. 22, Frances Osborn told police that she obtained the Social Security number of Susan Nelson of Wrentham, with whom she shared the date of birth. Osborn said she then looked on the Internet for another person named Osborn, eventually choosing Susan Osborn. She said she then used Susan Osborn's name and Susan Nelson's Social Security number to open a credit card with Capital One.

"She stated that she did it because she couldn't obtain a credit card in her own name due to bad credit," the police report says.

The next day, when they executed a search warrant at Frances Osborn's home, police learned from family members that she was at Logan Airport about to board a flight to Florida. "They thought Osborn had moved to Florida because she was no longer going to be able to live" in the Hingham house, the report says.

Frances Osborn purchased gold and diamond rings, gem necklaces, and bracelets, including one piece of jewelry engraved with the name Frances, the police report says. Some of the items were mailed to her at the Department of Industrial Accidents and some to an post office box she obtained near her office in downtown Boston, the report says.

Telephone messages left for Frances Osborn at her home were not returned.

"What bothers me is that this was information given to a state agency and you assumed it was secure," said James Nelson, the husband of Susan Nelson, who had filed a workers' compensation claim due in 1995.

"It's one thing for someone to get information by digging through the trash," he said. "Here, you had to give the information to the state. That's the eye opener."

Frances Osborn was arraigned in Wrentham District Court Jan. 24 and released on bail. She faces multiple counts of larceny, identity theft and credit card fraud.

Sean P. Murphy's email address is smurphy@globe.com. Editorial assistant Dan Muse assisted in this report.