Nurse’s Life Turned Upside Down by Identity Theft After Major Data Breach
Nurse Leslie Warner says she’ll never forget the day in 2022 when she was taken to the RCMP station in Fernie, B.C. and charged with fraud.
“I got fingerprinted and they took my mugshot,” she said. “I told the police, ‘This isn’t me. My identity has been stolen.’”
The charges were dropped after Warner explained that someone had stolen her identity back in 2020. The thief hacked into her Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) account and filed a fake tax return in Alberta. They also made it look like tax company H&R Block was her official tax representative — even though she never gave them permission to do so.
Since then, Warner has been trying to understand how this happened. She’s still worried that her CRA account could be hacked again.
An investigation by The Fifth Estate found that Warner’s name was on a list of over 28,000 people whose personal information was stolen from B.C.’s Interior Health Authority, which runs hospitals and health centres. The stolen data included social insurance numbers, home addresses, and birth dates of people who worked there between 2003 and 2009.
It’s not clear how many names on the list were used by scammers, but The Fifth Estate found several health workers had their CRA accounts hacked and fake loans or tax returns filed in their names.
Identity Theft Spread Across Provinces
A source calling themselves “Anonymous” contacted The Fifth Estate and shared the stolen list. They said it came from criminals selling data on the dark web using encrypted apps like Telegram. The Fifth Estate confirmed that many names on the list were real Interior Health employees and that the information was accurate.
Warner believes this is how her identity was stolen. Now, she has even more questions — like when the breach happened, who knew about it, and why she wasn’t told sooner.
“This is still happening,” Warner said. “There are people behind this, and they’re not stopping.”
H&R Block Offices Used in Fraud
In Warner’s CRA account, she found that someone had changed her email, bank account info, and even her home address. The scammers also added multiple H&R Block offices as her tax representatives.
The CRA even sent letters to H&R Block locations in Alberta, confirming that tax preparers there were acting on her behalf — even though Warner was living and working in B.C. the whole time.
Internal documents show that H&R Block knew about fraud happening through their offices. A memo warned employees about fake tax slips being used in Edmonton and Calgary, and scammers pretending to move from B.C. to Alberta.
Still, in a statement to The Fifth Estate, H&R Block said there’s no proof that its system was involved in CRA account hacks. The company said these cases are examples of identity theft, not problems with their tax filing system.
More Victims Speak Out
At least six other former Interior Health employees had their CRA accounts hacked in similar ways. One nurse found out fraudsters created fake companies in her name to file bogus tax forms.
“I feel dirty having been a victim of this,” she told The Fifth Estate.
In Warner’s case, she found out someone had already claimed a tax refund using her name and social insurance number. She also discovered that she suddenly had children listed under her account — even though she doesn’t have any.
Interior Health’s Response
In March 2024, the Interior Health Authority told the public that personal information of about 20,000 employees had been found during an RCMP investigation. They asked people who worked for the agency between 2003 and 2009 to call a hotline to check if their name was on the list.
But The Fifth Estate’s list had 28,000 names. Some people who were told by Interior Health that they were not on the list later found their information on the leaked copy anyway.
Interior Health said it hired security experts from Deloitte Canada who claimed the data was not on the dark web. But Anonymous told The Fifth Estate that’s not true — they said they saw the data being sold in dark web forums for years.
Deloitte declined to answer questions, and Interior Health said it can’t say more because the RCMP is still investigating.
As for Warner, she’s not trying to blame any specific organization — she just wants to understand what happened.
“Why didn’t anyone reach out to me?” she asked.
