Fraud is everywhere. If there is a way to take something, someone has already done it or is still doing it. Who expects people to be so bold as to take money from the United States Tax office? You would think that would be impossible but no, fraud is literally everywhere. It is called Stolen Identity Tax Fraud and seems to be the most popular type of fraud out there. How it work is that someone steals your identity and if that isn’t bad enough they file a bogus tax return in your name before you do and collects a refund check from the Internal Revenue Service.

It sounds so simple that you would think that it would never work but in fact, the scam has gone viral tripling in the past three years. The IRS estimates that it has sent out nearly 3 Million  Tax refunds to con artists in the last year alone. According to a new report from the government, it cost taxpayers $5 Billion dollars. The Treasury department thinks the numbers are much higher than that. It just shows how incompetent the government is.  The largest tax scam is in Florida.  Miami has the largest number of tax fraud complaints on file.

It is a way to make lots of money without having to do lots of work. There has always been Medicare Fraud, Mortgage Fraud, Securities Fraud and now what the Justice Department calls, Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud. In Florida you can see signs advertising tax preparer services in every establishment including Barber shops but you don’t even need an office there to do the theft. For this fraud all you need is a laptop, someone’s social security number, and date of birth. You don’t even need a name. You can do it from any location as long as you have Internet access.

You can even file a phony return on your cell phone if you have the right App. Why is this crime so popular and so easy to do meanwhile I still have to go in person to vote? The IRS website has an option that your return can be refunded to you on a debit card. How easy to get made up cash. Once you hit the send button on your fake tax return, the debit card is available within seven days 40% to any address. It is so outrageous that the process is this easy that often even the post man doesn’t  do anything about multiple checks going to places that have many different names.

You would think that the IRS would pick up on many checks going to a few addresses. The only way you know that you have been scammed is when you go to do your return and they tell you that it has been filled already. Then it is an impossible task of paperwork to prove your true identity. In the past 2 years there have been 4 Commissioners of the IRS and none of them have put a dent into stopping this fraud. Good luck keeping your identity and now in getting back your tax return money.