US criminals access 100,000 tax returns
Criminals in the United States have gained access to the tax returns of 100,000 people.
The suggestion is that criminals have used data taken from "hacked" websites whilst pretending to be legitimate users. They have then requested tax refunds and diverted the proceeds to accounts they control.
Warnings were given by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in March and the relevant "access method" has been shut down and an investigation is underway.
According to the New York Times the IRS paid nearly $50m (£32.5m) in refunds before detecting the fraud. Furthermore there were seemingly 200,000 fraudulent attempts to view tax returns using stolen information between February to mid-May. Half the requests were successful.
Concerns have been expressed by US experts that the IRS do not appear to use "multi-factor identification" as a mechanism to confirm a persons identity.
Subsequently the Internal Revenue Service has sent letters to those whose accounts have been compromised offering them a " free credit monitoring" service.
If you need help with a fraud related matter please contact our Doncaster solicitors on 01302 360 606 for advice.
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