[finance.yahoo.com]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Imagine filing your tax return and learning that someone else got your refund. With your name and Social Security number, no less.

The IRS is grappling with a nearly five-fold increase in taxpayer identity theft between 2008 and 2010, a Government Accountability Office official plans to tell a House hearing Thursday. There were 248,357 incidents in 2010, compared to 51,702 in 2008.

The GAO findings, obtained by The Associated Press, don't begin to describe the pain for a first-time victim, who must wait for a refund while the IRS sorts out which return is real and which is a fraud.

Many identity thieves don't get prosecuted, according James White, director of strategic issues for the GAO..

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“Stay Hungry Stay Foolish"
Steve Jobs

"There are only two mantras yum and yuk mine is yum "
Bernard Mickey Wrangle<>Tom Robbins<> "Still Life With Woodpecker"

"There is a fine line between a rut and a groove"
G.D. Kittredge III

"

Institutionally, I doubt the IRS gives a crap. They've already gotten their money, via withholding. Who gets any refund money or personal data isn't their concern.

I welcome anyone to take over my IRS returns. have fun getting nothing.

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Does anyone else remember the year when the IRS printed your social security number on the peel off mailing label?

A postal worker could have harvested lots of SSN's.

In this case, it is a good thing to owe the IRS

Here is a related uptrend occurrence in the financial aid offices around the county: scammers use SSN belonging to the homeless or willing participants at colleges for the purpose of obtaining grants and loans. Then drop out after just one semester. The "profits" are divided.

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SoCal for now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2011 02:41PM by kap.