Darien Resident a Victim of Latest Identity Theft Related to an IRS Tax Scam

The Internal Revenue Service notified a 55-year-0ld Darien woman recently that a tax return for 2016 had been filed in her name.

The only problem was that she hadn’t filed it yet.

When she contacted the IRS to tell them that, they told her to file a report with local police, which she did last week.

Scammers have been filing bogus tax returns in the name of people whose identifying information they’ve stolen in order to get tax refunds sent to them. The victim is not only the federal government but also the person whose identity has been stolen: It takes the IRS a while to straighten out the matter, and taxpayers could themselves be waiting for a refund.

See also:

• Income Tax-Related Identity Theft Scams Down But Not Out: How to Protect Yourself (March 19)
• Darien Residents Report Attempted IRS Tax Scams with Stolen Identities (March 19)
• Darien Police: How to Avoid Being Victimized by IRS Phone Scams (July 8, 2015)
• Elderly Woman Loses $1,000 to Thief in IRS Phone Scam (July 29, 2016)
• IRS Phone Scammers Recently Calling Darien Residents (Nov. 2, 2015)
• Darien Woman Loses $2,400 to Phone Scammer Who Said She Owed IRS (July 13, 2015)