Tax fraud increasing in digital age
Identity theft topped the Internal Revenue Service’s list of top five tax scams for 2012. This year, the IRS created a new body, the Identity Protection Specialized Unit, to prevent, spot and resolve identity theft crimes and has also implemented a new system to detect fraud for those who submit electronically. Last month, the IRS and the Justice Department collaboratively made 58 arrests in a 23-state crackdown on identity theft.
“We know that identity theft is a frustrating process for victims,” said IRS spokeswoman Anabel Marquez. “We really consider identity theft a top priority and we’re doing everything we can to stop it from happening.”
While Manhattan Beach detectives are still putting together the pieces of the Hawthorne case, police said identity thieves have plenty of ways to obtain a victim’s personal information. “A lot of my victims were victims of burglary, car burglary, house burglary, robbery,” Meers said, adding that records could have also been stolen from businesses or by crooked employees. Or, she said, “Maybe they threw stuff in the trash and didn’t shred it.”
Detectives recovered stolen drivers licenses, stolen checkbooks and stolen mail – including outgoing checks and incoming credit card statements.
To monitor accounts open in your name, police recommend obtaining a credit report once a year. Even then, victims may not always find out about an account. “There’s not a 100 percent guarantee that no credit is going to be opened in your name because places don’t always run a credit report,” Meers said.
Meers believes the perpetrators were even pulling victims’ credit reports. “Some of my victims will tell me, ‘I went to get my credit report and I couldn’t pull it for free. That tells me the suspect’s already done it,” she said.
It’s unclear if the perpetrators are targeting a specific group of individuals, though it seems they’re allegedly using “whatever identity they can get their hands on,” Meers said.
Out of the hundred names the police have recovered, they’ve contacted about 25 victims so far, all of which have noticed some type of fraud on their accounts or credit cards in their name that they never opened. “Some of my victims are getting letters in the mail that they were denied credit, that’s how they were alerted to it,” Meers said. “It’s like, well, I didn’t apply for credit, what’s going on here?”
Detectives warned that guaranteeing protection is difficult – that it’s not if you’re going to be a victim of identity theft, but when.
“You can’t prevent a determined identity thief just like you can’t prevent a determined burglar – the thing is how you’re going to react to it,” said Manhattan Beach Detective Mike Rosenberger.
If you’ve been a victim of identity theft, call Detective Meers at 310-802-5134. Those who believe their identity has been compromised should also call the IRS at 800-908-4490 to make sure their taxes have not yet been filed. Victims should also fill out an identity theft affidavit, available on the IRS website.