Tax Time Again and ID Theft there to steal your Tax Refund
It’s that time of the year again to prepare your taxes in hopes of getting some money back in the form of a tax refund. When you pay someone else to prepare your taxes you are taking the risk that the person won’t steal your SSN and file a tax return without you knowing about it. They then steal your refund and when you go to file your taxes the IRS rejects your return because they have already filed and taken your money.
There are 30 people in Chicago that know what I am talking about because they have all been victims of identity theft and have had their tax returns taken from them. All thirty of the alleged identity theft victims had an H&R Block at 3932 Main St. in Chicago prepare their tax returns. All of the thirty victims we informed by the IRS that they had already filed their return.
The H&R Block as well as the police are investigating the matter. It seems to me that someone at the tax return office is stealing the Social Security numbers of it’s customers. I suppose all thirty customers could have had their identity stolen by someone else and they filed the fraudulent tax returns but that seems unlikely.
It’s a shame that an office like that of H&R Block can’t prevent it’s employees from stealing Social Security numbers and filing fraudulent tax returns. It makes sense to me that a problem like that would be high on H&R Block’s list of things to prevent. I have heard many stores about little independent tax offices stealing identities but never a large company like H&R Block. Maybe another reason to file your own taxes.
Tags: ID theft, identity theft, tax returns