audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
The IRS disclosed May 26, 2015, that over 100,000 tax records had been fraudulently accessed through the online Get Transcript mechanism. Today they disclosed that an additional 220,000 records had be stolen bringing the total of potential victims to around 334,000.
If you are one of the victims who's accounts may be been accessed, you will get a letter from the IRS. They will begin mailing the letters in the next few days.
The online Get Transcript mechanism has been turned off for a while now.
The identity verification mechanism they were using, which is a fairly standard one, relied on someone's credit report history. Unfortunately, that information is not hard to dig up on an individual if someone goes looking, so it was too easy for other people to access someone's tax records.
Through "Get Transcript" you could access copies of old tax returns, amounts paid in estimated taxes, and the current account status (paid, owed, etc.).
The Get Transcript by Mail mechanism is still available. This method will only send the transcripts to the address on the last tax return, making it more secure than the online method was.
We created accounts earlier this year (one for each of us) and got copies of our information at that time. But we are locked out now as is everyone.
Unfortunately, creating an account to access transcripts online did not protect you from thieves in the past, because anyone could start over the identity verification process to access information.
I think the Social Security mechanism is a little more robust in that if an account has been created, users are notified by email if someone else accesses your account.
If you are one of the victims who's accounts may be been accessed, you will get a letter from the IRS. They will begin mailing the letters in the next few days.
IRS Says Thieves Stole Tax Info From Additional 220,000 - APIn all, the thieves used personal information from about 610,000 taxpayers in an effort to access old tax returns. They were successful in getting information from about 334,000 taxpayers.
The online Get Transcript mechanism has been turned off for a while now.
The identity verification mechanism they were using, which is a fairly standard one, relied on someone's credit report history. Unfortunately, that information is not hard to dig up on an individual if someone goes looking, so it was too easy for other people to access someone's tax records.
Through "Get Transcript" you could access copies of old tax returns, amounts paid in estimated taxes, and the current account status (paid, owed, etc.).
The Get Transcript by Mail mechanism is still available. This method will only send the transcripts to the address on the last tax return, making it more secure than the online method was.
We created accounts earlier this year (one for each of us) and got copies of our information at that time. But we are locked out now as is everyone.
Unfortunately, creating an account to access transcripts online did not protect you from thieves in the past, because anyone could start over the identity verification process to access information.
I think the Social Security mechanism is a little more robust in that if an account has been created, users are notified by email if someone else accesses your account.
Last edited: