TurboTax halts all state e-filing amid data breach probe

Re:TurboTax halts all state e-filing amid data breach probe by peterwwillis on Friday February 06, 2015 @05:39PM (#9012045)

How to file fraudulent tax returns:

  Step 1. Take someone's W2.
  Step 2. File.

Why would they stop all state filing because of this?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TurboTax halts all state e-filing amid data breach probe by stinkytaco on Friday February 06, 2015 @05:49PM (#9012101)

Just to be clear, this is a major problem:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Combats-Identity-Theft-a...

It's called SIRF (Stolen Identity Refund Fraud) and it likely costs billions a year at the federal level (I could not find data on states).

The difference seems to be that Turbo Tax was just the vector because it could be automated. Not a lot of payoff in doing it by hand.

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Re:TurboTax halts all state e-filing amid data breach probe by slantedview on Friday February 06, 2015 @06:45PM (#9012330)

I'd be interested to know how hard it is to trace the destination of fraudulent tax refunds.

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Re:TurboTax halts all state e-filing amid data breach probe by clogston on Friday February 06, 2015 @07:20PM (#9012463)

It's trivial for the IRS. They either cut a check (and mail it to an address) or direct deposit it in to an account. Most fraudsters opt for the check option... so much so in fact that one of the new fraud prevention mechanism the IRS introduced this year was to cap the total number of refund checks to any specific address at 10(!).

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