BeerBorg

Got home yesterday and got a $9000 check for 'a' tax refund. Trouble is, I didn't file my taxes yet plus, no way would I get that kind of money back. So, after waiting on hold for a bit, they tell me it looks like IRS fraud but found it odd a check was sent to me but not to whomever tried to fraud them. And, they said they tried to direct deposit the refund to my bank but it was refused so "we sent a check to the address on the return". Seems someone tried to pull a fast one and the IRS caught it.
But, the fun isn't over. Even though a credit check shows no problems at all, there will be some hoops to go thru for the next 6 months possibly. The return info is all so very wrong. Though they won't tell us about when it was sent and from where or anything else, we all can go online and view the returns from the last few years. The return I viewed had wrong W2 info, had student loans for 2 people (both from online universities) and general BS on it.

Everyone is saying the good thing is that the check came to us. Had it gone to someone else, ie the person who did this, we would have had to go thru more hoops to prove we didn't do this. Still, unless and until the IRS can get to the bottom of this, I guess I have to be extra vigilant.
My CPA says that there's lots of people all over the world who spam the IRS with fake returns just to mess with them. Maybe 30,000 at a time from China for example. Just to piss them off. While I don't think this is the case for me, my 2 seconds of happiness when I saw the check and thought, 'there is a conical in my life' was over way too early.

That is some scary stuff.

For full disclosure I should say the check was actually $9016.

Sorry, BL, just forward that to me, and you'll become the heir to a diamond mine in Batavia.

Crazy stuff. Where there's a will and money involved there will be fraud you can count on it.

Wow, that's just crazy.

In 2005 someone had filed a return and received over $10,000 using my info. They must have received some kind of debit cash card and had an incorrect address on it in South Phoenix. Problem for me was the fact I had not yet filed for 2005, 2006 & 2007 when in 2008 the error was caught by me. Wow, talk about hoops and jumping (I'm a white guy so you know that is next to impossible) I had to submit police reports,etc etc etc and initially had to surrender the refunds we were going to receive for those 3 years and that wasn't chump change. Bad of me to delay filing but paying or filing for taxes is not one of my favorite things to do. I learned real quick and haven't missed a year since. It did take over a year to get it all cleared up and the IRS came through with our refunds but had to eat the $10K paid out.

Good fortunes with your situation, Paul.

Because of my small business, I do things right. My CPA is a CFO of a local bank and has done my work (for free) for many years. All above board. But, while we don't usually file until the October deadline, we always file and extension before April 15.

I think this is an epic fail on someone's part because they were dumb enough to still list my address. We do know they tried to direct deposit into another account but the IRS won't tell us anymore about it. But you can bet they'll be looking at the person who's name is on that bank account. I don't expect this to be over for awhile but after my wife went to our bank today, she got us in a better situation should the stuff hit the fan further.