Friday, April 20, 2012

Fraud alert: Tax fraud


It’s that time of year again, tax season. When someone thinks of tax season what do they think of? Stress? How about fraud? Right now a crime that is occurring in Meridian Township and around the United States is tax fraud, which is a form of identity theft. In most cases the fraudsters are using the social security number of a victim without the victim even knowing. Sometime the victim just won’t get their return back or after sending in their tax paperwork they will receive a letter in the mail explaining that their taxes have already been filed and that the tax return was sent out.

The IRS does not cross reference every tax return application they receive. Many times unless their computer system shows an error they will not even catch a fraudulent tax return until it has already been processed.

Some steps you can take to insure that you are not a victim of tax fraud:

-Make sure that you do not give out your social security number to anyone unless you can verify who they are. Once the fraudster gets your social security number they can apply for credit cards or tax returns on your behalf.

-Do not carry your social security card with you. Leave it at home in a safe place.

-Run annual credit checks on you and any other adults in you household. Free credit reports can be done at www.annualcreditreport.com.

-Do not respond to suspicious emails, text messages, or phone calls.

-File your taxes early if possible. 

Resources:
Go to www.irs.gov for any additional information.

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