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April 11, 2014

Bogus tax refunds hit $4B and growing

  • The IRS says it opened nearly 1,500 criminal investigations related to identity theft in fiscal year 2013, a 66 percent increase over the previous year.
    • By ERIC TUCKER
    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — An Internet connection and a bunch of stolen identities are all it takes for crooks to collect billions of dollars in bogus federal tax refunds. And the scam is proving too pervasive to stop.

    A government report in November said the IRS issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the previous year to criminals who were using other people's personal information. Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the “scale, scope and execution of these fraud schemes” has grown substantially and the Justice Department in the past year has charged 880 people.


     
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