Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s tax season, which means it’s also identity theft season. According to the IRS, filing tax returns under someone else’s name is one of the biggest crimes they look for. “I’ve never been in the victim category before,” said Chris Wittner of Layton. Wittner tried to file his tax returns earlier this week. Then he found out that they had already been filed by someone else, who cashed a rebate check in his name for $3,500. “They completely made up my W2 figures, and they walked away with more than triple what I was going to get back any way,” Wittner said. Wittner is not alone. The IRS stopped 4 million tax returns with stolen names last year, which equaled out to $8 billion in phony refunds. “It’s not comfortable being a statistic, you don’t ever think about it until it actually happens to you, and what’s frustrating is I can’t think of anything I could have done to prevent it,” Wittner said. The IRS said it only takes a few pieces of key information, like a birth date and social security number, and people can submit someone else’s returns. “If they made up a driver’s […]
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