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Old 06-09-2020, 10:29 PM
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fyrffytr1 fyrffytr1 is offline
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Default Scummers got my wife and me!

The title is spelled correctly. Scum stole our federal tax return and then filed a fraudulent one. They used all our information including income down to the dollar and the sources it came from. Then they filed a long form (We filed a short form) and added over $29,000.00 in mortgage interest, over $22,000.00 in cash contributions and over $2,500.00 in other deductions.
They got a return of over $6,000.00 (about $4,000.00 more than we were due) and had it direct deposited in an account. Then, they used that direct deposit information to get our $2,400 stimulus money!
So, they ended up with almost $9,000.00 and I haven't seen a dime!
Our tax lady said that scammers usually make up a completely fraudulent return using only the name and SSN. Since ours was correct to the dollar it had to have been stolen from the mail.
I have been on the phone and computer all day freezing credit and filing forms with the IRS.
I would love to meet the trash that did this to us and at least three other filers that use the same tax preparer we do.

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Old 06-09-2020, 10:33 PM
skipp65 skipp65 is offline
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I could only hope they don’t get away with it!! I would be spitting nails pissed! Good luck to you.

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Old 06-09-2020, 10:40 PM
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how do they open bank accounts that cant be traced back to them?

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Old 06-09-2020, 10:46 PM
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Oh that is awful for you and your wife... so upsetting to think about all the criminals living around us all and the harm they do. I hope the IRS helps you and you are able to recover quickly.

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Old 06-09-2020, 11:09 PM
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wow I hope you get everything worked out quickly and they get caught.

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Old 06-09-2020, 11:17 PM
John V. John V. is offline
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That really sucks. Hope it turns out that you are made whole.

If I understood what I've read, the IRS does recover a high percentage of this fraud (85%) but it still costs all of us billions from the US Treasury that isn't recovered.

My guess, the IRS may recover the money, but the scammers are probably nearly impossible to catch.

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Old 06-09-2020, 11:51 PM
salem1912 salem1912 is offline
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" and at least three other filers that use the same tax preparer we do"

Would that sound any alarms? Who mailed of your tax forms you or the preparer? Someone watching the preparers out going mail?

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Old 06-09-2020, 11:55 PM
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Someone filed in my name a few years ago, although they got a lot smaller amount than in your case. It was a royal pain to resolve, but in the end it didn't cost me anything other than the time spent and the additional grey hair. Since then, each year the IRS sends me a password code I have to include on my tax forms to show it's really me.

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Old 06-10-2020, 12:01 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by salem1912 View Post
" and at least three other filers that use the same tax preparer we do"

Would that sound any alarms? Who mailed of your tax forms you or the preparer? Someone watching the preparers out going mail?
I have been using the same tax preparer for twenty years. I trust her completely. I mailed my own returns. The other three also mailed their returns. I know one of them and worked with him for many years at the Fire Department.
I get the feeling this may have been done by an IRS employee. If you filed a return and deducted over $29,000.00 in mortgage interest and over $22,000.00 in CASH contributions on about $80,000.00 total income would you expect it to go unchallenged by the IRS?

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Old 06-10-2020, 12:04 AM
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If anyone is interested they can go to IRS.gov and set up an account. Then you can look at your past returns and anything else they have on file. That is how I found out about my fraud.

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Old 06-10-2020, 09:20 AM
Baron Von Zeppelin Baron Von Zeppelin is offline
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Sounds like a really organized crime by someone in the Postal sector or IRS sector.
They may have done 100's or 1000's just like yours.
That would turn into millions of dollars pretty fast.

Probably long gone by now to some foreign country that doesn't extradite criminals of non-violent crimes.

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Old 06-10-2020, 09:21 AM
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SCUMMERS is too nice of a word.

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Old 06-10-2020, 10:09 AM
1965gp 1965gp is offline
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I hate to hear this- similarly someone filed for unemployment in my name.

The fact that your tax preparer has this many customers effected means that they were hacked somehow. I’m sure you trust them but they need to be looking at their situation and security protocol. Did someone work on their computer? Do they store/back up data on a cloud? What security measures do they take? Also- how many customers do they have? 3 out of 1000 is a lot different than three out of 50.

To be clear I am not saying your preparer has anything to do with it- but the chance of them being hacked looks pretty high

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Old 06-10-2020, 10:37 AM
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Around Feb 2019 we had a rash of mailbox burglaries. The thieves would smash the hell out of the mailboxes (these are groups of mailboxes for condos/subdivisions), and steal the W-2. The thieves know the timing for W-2 deliveries (not hard). Once you have the W-2, its pretty straight forward to file a fraudulent return claiming a refund. (Our mailboxes then went through an upgrade using thicker metal, heavier duty locks, etc).

It demonstrates the incompetence of government when they issue money to bank accounts with all most no verification. A few years ago the IRS paid several hundred millions dollars in refund fraud to something like four accounts in Estonia.

You'd think for direct deposit they would require you to set up an IRS account and maybe use secondary authentication techniques at least. Pathetic morons.

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Old 06-10-2020, 10:40 AM
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I'd agree with the tax preparer having been hacked or something.
Where was the bank that the money was deposited into?
Local? Out of state? Country?

I would very much doubt the IRS agent would be involved. They probably have many safeguards in place to keep that from happening.

Hoping for a good outcome on this.


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Old 06-10-2020, 12:50 PM
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Tax preparer gave me a paper copy to file by mail. The transcript of the fraudulent return I downloaded from the IRS website did not give the account number nor where the bank was located. For there to be so many similarities between my true return and the fake one it had to have been done at the IRS or someone in the postal service possibly stole it or someone took it from my mailbox. If someone got it out of my mailbox why didn't they take my state return as well? I got my state refund back two weeks after I mailed it in.

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Old 06-10-2020, 01:42 PM
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The tax preparer still has a copy though. Could be kept on the 'cloud' or some database somewhere. If there were others from his business, that would narrow it down for me. The IRS would probably not receive all the returns from his work at the same time, plus probably not the same agent would be doing the returns?

I would think the IRS would know the bank and be investigating this.
(problem being there is so much other stuff going on though)


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  #18  
Old 06-10-2020, 03:44 PM
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At my post office, if you use their outside mailboxes to mail a letter
it has a good chance of being stolen out of the box by someone who fabricates
a box that will fit in to the mail slot of the mailbox and catch your mail before it
goes down into the bottom area of the box. I had my mail stolen several times
and the post office told me to only mail letters inside the post office, not in any mailbox as they are compromised all the time by thieves.

  #19  
Old 06-10-2020, 10:52 PM
salem1912 salem1912 is offline
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"I got my state refund back two weeks after I mailed it in"

I don't think you can run up a state return as much as a federal . no expert here though.

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  #20  
Old 06-10-2020, 11:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1965gp View Post
I hate to hear this- similarly someone filed for unemployment in my name.

The fact that your tax preparer has this many customers effected means that they were hacked somehow. I’m sure you trust them but they need to be looking at their situation and security protocol. Did someone work on their computer? Do they store/back up data on a cloud? What security measures do they take? Also- how many customers do they have? 3 out of 1000 is a lot different than three out of 50.

To be clear I am not saying your preparer has anything to do with it- but the chance of them being hacked looks pretty high
I don't know how many clients my tax lady has but she works full time year round. If I call the first of February I usually get to see her between March 15th and the 31st. And, she works out of her home so someone is always there.

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