Fed Tax E File Rejected - somebody already filed using my SS number - what to do?

[sengsational]

Why do you think you aren't at risk? The tax fraud has nothing to do with withholding.

I guess maybe I'm missing something then. And that would not be unheard of.

Are you saying that the IRS doesn't even check your withholding account before cutting a check? If that's the case, what a bunch of bozos we have running this show!

 

[Alan]

I guess maybe I'm missing something then. And that would not be unheard of.

Are you saying that the IRS doesn't even check your withholding account before cutting a check? If that's the case, what a bunch of bozos we have running this show!

That is I how I understand it. The fake return has your details and that's about all that matches, the thieves don't need to replicate the company details of the W2's, 1099's etc that were filed in the previous year or try to match up the actual withholdings those companies have filed this year with your SSN.
http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4294982014

Thanks to paperless e-filing, this scam is easier to pull off than ever before. Thieves can simply make up phony wages or other income, submit the information electronically and receive the fraudulent refund via mail or direct deposit within a month. Of course, the IRS keeps records of earned wages and other types of taxable income reported by taxpayers’ employers and other organizations. However, the IRS doesn’t match these records to information submitted electronically by identity thieves until several months after it issues refund checks. By the time the IRS tells the victim that it has received another tax form in his or her name, the thief has cashed the refund check and is long gone with the money. The identity thief wins, and the U.S. Treasury and the victimized taxpayer are the losers.

 

[braumeister]

Nobody likes to give the IRS more money to operate with. I wonder why?

 

[audreyh1]

I guess maybe I'm missing something then. And that would not be unheard of.

Are you saying that the IRS doesn't even check your withholding account before cutting a check? If that's the case, what a bunch of bozos we have running this show!

Well, the tax return is what establishes whether you are owed or not.

You would think that a check could at least be made on the taxes paid so far, and flag a mismatch.

A big part of the problem is that the IRS is required by law to process refunds very quickly, and there is not enough time to do a complete verification, and the crooks have figured out how to game this system.

9 out of 10 refunds are issued in 21 days. I don't know what the law requires.

 

[sengsational]

A big part of the problem is that the IRS is required by law to process refunds very quickly, and there is not enough time to do a complete verification, and the crooks have figured out how to game this system.

The query would take a few milliseconds. The small percentage that came back flagged would probably be the issue since they'd have to disposition those returns quickly. And of course it would all over the news when one taxpayer gets flagged and it takes an extra month to get the check cut. For all the fraud money they pay out, you'd think they'd just hire some part-timers to eyeball the flagged ones.

 

[Corporateburnout]

A big part of the problem is that the IRS is required by law to process refunds very quickly, and there is not enough time to do a complete verification, and the crooks have figured out how to game this system.

What is very quickly? a month? two months? I just like to know when to sue the IRS since it's been a month since I e filed (Only kidding about suing the IRS)

Apparently 21 Billion in fraudulent refunds is not large enough to change the law to allow the IRS to mandate earlier releases of W2s from employers and 1099s from investment firms or delay the issuance of refund check to allow for matching records. Meanwhile 334,000 people in 2015 had to suffer through their identity being stolen and their refunds being delayed for months.

 

[audreyh1]

What is very quickly? a month? two months? I just like to know when to sue the IRS since it's been a month since I e filed (Only kidding about suing the IRS)

Apparently 21 Billion in fraudulent refunds is not large enough to change the law to allow the IRS to mandate earlier releases of W2s from employers and 1099s from investment firms or delay the issuance of refund check to allow for matching records. Meanwhile 334,000 people in 2015 had to suffer through their identity being stolen and their refunds being delayed for months.

21 days.

 

[audreyh1]

The query would take a few milliseconds. The small percentage that came back flagged would probably be the issue since they'd have to disposition those returns quickly. And of course it would all over the news when one taxpayer gets flagged and it takes an extra month to get the check cut. For all the fraud money they pay out, you'd think they'd just hire some part-timers to eyeball the flagged ones.

It's not like the IRS can use any revenue saved from flagging fraudulent tax returns to supplement its budget, LOL! It already has an established budget it must stick to.

 

[sengsational]

If it were a private or public company, the money paid out would come out of someone's budget, and I kind of doubt the CEO of said company would be idiotic enough not to stop the bleeding by transferring some of the fraud refund budget to temp labor.

 

[audreyh1]

If it were a private or public company, the money paid out would come out of someone's budget, and I kind of doubt the CEO of said company would be idiotic enough not to stop the bleeding by transferring some of the fraud refund budget to temp labor.

Well, the CEO in this case in Congress. They make the rules, and they hold the purse strings (determine the budget).

 

[sengsational]

Too bad we don't have Federal ballot initiatives. I'd make one that takes the IRS fraud funds out of their pay. What tax payer wouldn't support that? And then they'd be properly incentivized.

 

[audreyh1]

Too bad we don't have Federal ballot initiatives. I'd make one that takes the IRS fraud funds out of their pay. What tax payer wouldn't support that? And then they'd be properly incentivized.

To find another job, LOL!

 

[MichaelB]

Well, if I were King of the world I'd have Google build one of those flying things that send laser beam shots that Luke Skywalker used to train with on the Millennium Falcon. A fleet of those things to fly around and shock people that cheat on their taxes. More cheating = bigger shock.

 

[Mulligan]

Well, the tax return is what establishes whether you are owed or not.

You would think that a check could at least be made on the taxes paid so far, and flag a mismatch.

A big part of the problem is that the IRS is required by law to process refunds very quickly, and there is not enough time to do a complete verification, and the crooks have figured out how to game this system.

9 out of 10 refunds are issued in 21 days. I don't know what the law requires.

I filed mine in January and got my money in 4 days. My return was not done 100% accurate, but I got my money and no thief stole my ID. I feel compelled to jump the gun to avoid what has happened to some here and will continue as long as the threat exists.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Tadpole]

I filed the first week of February and have not received my refund. The "where's my refund" site says "processing" as it has for weeks. Since I was in both OPM breaches, I naturally am a bit paranoid. Any other retired federal employees finding their return delayed without explanation? ( and, yes, I know it is not all that late) The return, itself, was accepted at the IRS almost immediately on submission so I thought there was no problem from multiple submissions. Now I worry.

 

[harley]

Well, if I were King of the world I'd have Google build one of those flying things that send laser beam shots that Luke Skywalker used to train with on the Millennium Falcon. A fleet of those things to fly around and shock people that cheat on their taxes. More cheating = bigger shock.

Excellent! Then we can use the software from Department of Pre-Crime Is Becoming a Reality - Hit & Run : Reason.com to identify the offenders before they commit the crime, and shock them so hard they can't type.

 

[meierlde]

I guess maybe I'm missing something then. And that would not be unheard of.

Are you saying that the IRS doesn't even check your withholding account before cutting a check? If that's the case, what a bunch of bozos we have running this show!

The IRS (actually social security which forwards it, w-2) does not get W-2 or 1099 info until 3/31. so if you file before they have no way of checking. You get the forms earlier so that corrections if needed can be made before they are sent to the IRS.

 

[audreyh1]

I filed the first week of February and have not received my refund. The "where's my refund" site says "processing" as it has for weeks. Since I was in both OPM breaches, I naturally am a bit paranoid. Any other retired federal employees finding their return delayed without explanation? ( and, yes, I know it is not all that late) The return, itself, was accepted at the IRS almost immediately on submission so I thought there was no problem from multiple submissions. Now I worry.

Did you eFile? If so, your filing would have been rejected very quickly if someone already filed using your credentials.

If your eFile was accepted, no one (has yet) filed using your SS#.

 

[audreyh1]

The IRS (actually social security which forwards it, w-2) does not get W-2 or 1099 info until 3/31. so if you file before they have no way of checking. You get the forms earlier so that corrections if needed can be made before they are sent to the IRS.

There you go - I couldn't find this information.

This basically gives the crooks a big window of opportunity.

 

[Corporateburnout]

I filed the first week of February and have not received my refund. The "where's my refund" site says "processing" as it has for weeks. Since I was in both OPM breaches, I naturally am a bit paranoid. Any other retired federal employees finding their return delayed without explanation? ( and, yes, I know it is not all that late) The return, itself, was accepted at the IRS almost immediately on submission so I thought there was no problem from multiple submissions. Now I worry.

Not a retired federal employee and was not affected by any previous breaches but I'm still waiting for my refund after my return was e filed on February 9 and accepted on the same day by the IRS.

I get the same message as you do on "where is my refund". I plan to call on Monday if I don't get my refund before then.

 

[ERD50]

It's not like the IRS can use any revenue saved from flagging fraudulent tax returns to supplement its budget, LOL! It already has an established budget it must stick to.

Well, I worked on cost reduction programs, but I didn't get a % of the savings, nor did my department.

We got to keep our jobs (maybe)! Now get back to work, that was last year, what have you done for us lately!

Fraud like this ought to be child's play to fix. If the IRS can't do it, they should be shut down (and some other form put in place)..

Incredible.

-ERD50

 

[Alan]

I e-filed our tax return on Feb 19 and the refund was in our bank on March 2nd.

 

[audreyh1]

I apply any refund to next year's estimated tax payments, which lowers my April 15 (18) tax payment. At least I don't have to deal with waiting to get money then turning around and giving it back.

Of course, we were doing the happy dance when our return was accepted, as that was the first fraud gauntlet cleared. Now it doesn't matter how long the rest of it takes to resolve if any issues come up.

 

[audreyh1]

More info on how these fraudulent files work from a June 2015 Sixty Minutes The Tax Refund Scam - CBS News

You would think that the IRS computers would notice that they were sending thousand of checks to a handful of addresses. But they didn't. And you might expect that the IRS would match taxpayer returns with legitimate W-2 forms filed by employers. It doesn't do that either because the law requires refund checks to be sent out within six weeks and employer W-2s are often not available until months later. So if a bogus return is received before a legitimate one, the check will go out to the crooks.

Even Ferrer's old boss, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, has had his identity stolen in an IRS refund scam. And a number of members of the task force have been victimized, including North Miami Beach Police Officer Rocky Festa, who says local police departments have been hit hard.

George "Rocky" Festa: Aventura had nearly their entire department, which was 50-some-odd officers got hit. Davie Fire and Davie Police, it was in the hundreds. They were all victims of tax return fraud.

Festa and his partner Craig Caitlin now work exclusively on tax refund cases and were among the first to discover the breadth of the scam five years ago, when they began finding tax documents and stacks of pre-paid debit cards when they pulled over suspicious vehicles.

If you want, the IRS will electronically deposit tax refunds directly onto these cards no questions asked, eliminating the need for crooks to ever actually set foot inside a bank or try to cash a refund check. They can spend the money in stores, or withdraw it from ATMs.

Steve Kroft: So is this kind of like a throwaway phone?

Craig Caitlin: Yes, sir. Yeah, once the money goes on the card, you empty the money off on ATMs and you put the card in the garbage. It's pretty good.

The prepaid cards are now used by millions of Americans to collect $142 billion in government entitlements like Social Security and Medicare payments. IRS Commissioner Koskinen thinks it's an invitation to commit fraud.

Commissioner Koskinen: The prepaid cards are the currency of criminals. Our problem is you can't distinguish the number of a prepaid card from a legitimate bank account.

 

[Tadpole]

Did you eFile? If so, your filing would have been rejected very quickly if someone already filed using your credentials.

If your eFile was accepted, no one (has yet) filed using your SS#.

yes, I eFiled. That's what I thought but I wasn't sure.