Official: Ex-PGW employee compromised customers' identities

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Action News has learned the FBI is looking into allegations a former employee of Philadelphia Gas Works compromised the identities of some of the company's customers and used that information for her own personal use.

"What occurred recently was a misuse of customer information by a rogue ex-employee of PGW," said PGW spokesman Barry O'Sullivan.

Last week, PGW began sending letters to 5,000 customers letting them know one of their service customer representatives accessed and misused information relating to several PGW customers in order to make improper charges or purchases.

"Now of those 5,000 PGW customers, only six had their information misused," said O'Sullivan. "Nevertheless, we felt it was important for us to reach out to every customer who had interacted with this ex-employee."

The FBI declined to confirm or deny the investigation, which Action News learned has been going on now for several weeks. The suspect has been terminated and her PGW access account has been closed.

"We are offering (customers) a free year of credit reporting and monitoring through Experian," said O'Sullivan.

If you are one of the 5,000 customers who received one of these letters and worry about your identity being compromised, you can apply to get the free credit monitoring for a year by calling 877-271-1504.