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Alert

FBI : Tax Return Fraud Alert

Apr 7, 2015 1:28AM PDT
Alert from the FBI announced on April 02, 2015 :

"Criminals are proficient in stealing the personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals to facilitate various fraud activities, including using stolen identity information to file fraudulent tax returns. Once the fraudsters obtain victim PII, they electronically file tax returns and set up pre-paid debit cards or bank accounts to route fraudulent returns. The balances on the pre-paid cards and bank accounts are depleted shortly after the tax refund is issued.

The fraudsters utilize multiple methods to obtain the information needed to file a tax return. The most popular methods include: computer intrusion, the online purchase of stolen PII, the recruitment of insiders who have legitimate access to sensitive information, the physical theft of computers that contain PII, the impersonation of Internal Revenue Service personnel, and the aggregation of information that is obtained through multiple publicly available Web sites."

Continued with Tips to protect yourself : http://www.ic3.gov/media/2015/150402.aspx

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