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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

IRS Employee Steals; Russians Steal. Does The IRS Do Anything Right?

IRS Employee Steals $326K Using 

Taxpayer's Identities

  • 06/03/2015 06:28 PM
  •  
  • Source: FOXNews.com
  •  
  • by: foxnewsonline@foxnews.com (Fox News Online)

An IRS employee who worked in the agency’s St. Louis,
 MO., office pled guilty this week to charges of tax fraud.
 Demetria Brown netted $326,000 in a fraud in which
 she stole taxpayer identities and created fake tax 
returns to steal refunds. Her plea was made the 
told Congress Russian criminals were behind the
 hacking of the agency’s website that resulted in the
 identity theft of more than 100,000 individuals.

Brown was able to create the fake tax returns using names, Social Security numbers and dates of
 births for victims without their consent. It’s not known whether the information came from IRS files.
 She requested refunds be direct deposited to one of six bank accounts in five different states. The
 scheme lasted four years from 2008 to 2001. Brown faces up to 42 years behind bars and $750,000
 in fines. Sentencing is not expected for months.

The case raises even more questions about the safety of taxpayer identities after last week’s news 
that criminals had used an application on the IRS website called “Get Transcript” to obtain copies 
of legitimate taxpayer tax filings from previous years and then file new ones to steal refunds. IRS
 officials say sophisticated international criminals were responsible for the breach. Today’s case,
 though, shows that the problems are also closer to home.

Koskinen is also fielding questions about why the tax agency is still using 13-year-old Microsoft
 (MSFT) XP software, a year after the tech company stopped supporting the product with
 security patches and software updates. The lapse further exposes taxpayers to security problems.  
 Source: FOXNews.com
- See more at: http://americanactionnews.com/articles/irs-employee-steals-326g-by-using-taxpayer-s-identities#sthash.RYdgFzHL.dpuf

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