Tax season is underway. This scene plays out all to commonly: You gather all of the paperwork, complete the forms and wait for a tax refund. Shortly after filing you receive notice from the Internal Revenue Service that your request for a refund was denied; you were already given a refund based on your 2021 tax return.
Surprise! Welcome to the world of fraudulent tax returns. A criminal accessed your personal data, including your social security number, filed an electronic return, was issued a tax refund based on your information and disappeared. These scams occur at an alarming rate fed by data breaches — unauthorized access to personal information. We have limited ability to contain data breaches beyond those for which we are responsible such as providing unknown callers with personal information (State and Federal government agencies do not call to request information). Most breaches occur beyond our reach when criminals hack into data collected by companies, organizations or government agencies.
Finding out if you are the victim of a tax scam can be difficult. Be proactive. Check with your state tax department or the IRS to see if there are issues involving your records. Was your tax refund requested by someone else? Contact information: IRS — sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp or 800-829-1040; Massachusetts,
