IRS: Thieves Obtained 100,000 income tax returns with information Stolen

IRS: Thieves Obtained 100,000 income tax returns with information Stolen -

The IRS recently announced that thieves have used stolen Social Security numbers and other information in its systems to access the tax return for the previous year information for approximately 100,000 US households. According to the Associated Press, this information was then used to produce fraudulent tax returns in an attempt to collect the amounts due. An inquiry by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the criminal investigation unit of the IRS to determine the details. According to the IRS commissioner John Koskinen, the authors were experienced and knew what they were doing.

How the thieves access to IRS systems?

The criminals obtained the information from the previous year's tax return with IRS system called "Get Transcript." This system allows people to obtain transcripts of their statements of past earnings, which are sometimes necessary for purposes such as mortgage loans or financial assistance. To access each transcription, the thieves had to pass through a screen that asked various information about the taxpayer in question - including Social Security number, date of birth, the status of the tax return and address the House. This means that thieves had this information at hand before you use it to access the system, which is worrying. However, given the many data breaches have occurred over the past year, it is not surprising that the information gathered from these sources is used to commit fraud.

The thieves accessed the system "Get Transcript" from February to mid-May 2015. The agency was aware of the fraud when his technicians noticed an increase of transcript requests. The IRS has temporarily shut down the system while studying, but people need to get a tax return for the previous year may always request their transcripts by mail. Information tax returns last year is useful for filing fraudulent tax returns because it makes it easier to pass for legitimate.

What does the IRS do to protect myself?

It is worrying that the thieves had as much personal information about every fraudulent application successfully as they did. Overall, there were about 200,000 attempts to obtain Tax Information "Get Transcript," although only 100,000 of those were successful. The IRS will provide free credit monitoring report in which 100,000 people were affected. It will communicate all 200,000 taxpayers whose information was used, which is important since the identity of these people are certainly in danger. This type of violation is still alarming, given the amount of information a government agency like the IRS stores approximately US citizens. An incident like this can undermine people's confidence in the systems designed to protect their privacy.

Although the tax identity theft is almost impossible to catch up to what you are trying to file your return every year, there are some tips that can help you protect your identity during the season taxes - and beyond. Follow our protection against identity theft blog for more information on protecting your identity in all aspects of your life.