Darien Residents Report Attempted IRS Tax Scams with Stolen Identities

So far, this year’s tax fraud cases involving Darien residents aren’t as successful for the thieves, according to what Darien police were told.

Twice this month in separate cases, the IRS notified town residents about communications involving their tax returns that the town residents had never sent. In neither case was the tax fraud successful, but they each show that information on the residents was being used by someone.

Here’s what Darien police were told earlier this month about two unrelated incidents:

A husband and wife both got letters from the IRS saying someone had asked the government agency for their tax returns for the past three years and had power-of-attorney forms.

The couple’s accountant in Iowa told them that his IRS file was hacked.

In the other case, a Darien woman received a letter from the IRS telling her that her tax return had been rejected. Except that she hadn’t filed it yet.

Another ID theft case — this one without any connection to the IRS or taxes — was reported to police on March 6. A Darien woman, 71, said she had received a message from Verizon about an application to switch her service to Sprint. That wasn’t anything she’d requested, she told police.

There was no evidence of any criminal activity in Darien itself, a police spokesman said.

ID Theft for Tax Scamming

Protecting yourself:

• Income Tax-Related Identity Theft Scams Down But Not Out: How to Protect Yourself (March 19)
• Darien Police: How to Avoid Being Victimized by IRS Phone Scams (July 8, 2015)

Previous ID theft cases in Darien involving tax scammers:

• 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)