When the Tax Man is NOT the Tax Man
A dangerous new type of identity theft involving con artists posing as tax officials has popped up in the California area in the last few months.
The criminals claim to be Enrolled Agents, tax professionals licensed by the U.S. government to represent taxpayers and assist them in tax preparation and planning. Targeted customers get official looking letters and forms from either their financial institutions or the IRS requesting detailed personal information and financial data. In one case, a letter with a "Reporting and Withholding Exemption Form" was enclosed and the recipient was told to fill out the form and fax it to a telephone number to prevent automatic withholding of one-third of the interest on the taxpayer's account. The form asked for a Social Security number, marital status, place of birth, bank account number, employment history, and parents' names - lots of valuable goodies to someone determined to use the information to create fake accounts. Some of the phony documents look like official IRS forms but carry fictitious numbers.
Financial institutions should remind customers that if they are the victims of identify theft fraud, they should contact the Social Security Fraud hotline at (800) 269-0271 and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at (877) IDTHEFT.
Copyright © 2003 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 13, No. 3, 6/03
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