Someone stole my Social Security # and got a refund!!!

[TallDude]

This just happened to my brother last year, now it happened to me. I went to file my federal taxes yesterday electronically, and got a message back saying it was declined because a return for this SSN had already been filed! It can easily done, because there is no verification process. They simply file what ever income they want, and show a big return. Then change the account they want it deposited into to there own (it's just the account number they as for) and BINGO!!!!!! How will the IRS fix that one? It will come down to a race of filling your tax returns before the bad guys do. I think the electronic filing has created this. I mailed in my tax returns with a completed IRS fraud form, which I have to include a copy of my drivers license to prove I am who I think I am......... Took my brother almost a year before he got his refund check, so I'm not banking on mine coming any time soon

[hbsteve]

That really sucks.  It seems time that the IRS requires passwords.  Yeah, I know.  Some companies require upper & lower case, some numbers and eight characters total.  The IRS should be able to do this.

[1tuberider]

I see it all to often.  Most often its a dead beat scamming a past relationship.  Be careful about who gets your SS#.  I have had to paper file more than a few this year due to the dead beats.
Its really sad to because some of these filers are needy and the delay in refunds creates hardships for them.  One dead beat was at the casino with a fist full of dollars.  If you happen to know any of these dead beats and they happen to surf make sure you cut them off.

[mittenkitten]

That's terrible! My tax return this year is going directly toward a new board, so in your situation I would be livid!

I recently saw a news bit on how most copy machines have an internal hard drive that saves everything that has been copied on the machine. When an office decides to buy a new machine, all that info can be accessed by whomever decides to buy the old one, if they know what they are doing. SS#s would be everywhere on copy machines from places of employment, doctors offices, etc. It's a legitimate threat.

[PonoBill]

Well, it's not "most" and even with networked copiers that have that functionality it's not a default setting to be saving documents, but some companies do set them up that way. The most common copier OS is some proprietary form of unix, often BSD, and it's feasible for someone with really good knowledge of the file systems to get access, but it's not easy. There's a million ways for people to get your SS, the feds are really sloppy with it, and there are lots of organizations that require an ssn that really shouldn't. No surprise that the feds are a decade behind on security, the fact that someone can do this kind of thing with JUST an SSN is simply pathetic.

[Tom]

Originally, the SSN was never intended to be a secret and private number. The problem is that it has become very important in financial transactions and record keeping. Originally a credit card number was only used in-person and other ID was required to use it. With the advent of online finance, that was no longer the case and the credit card companies invented and required the three digit number on the back of your card. This number is not recorded by vendors and can be easily changed by the card company.
I think the social security administration needs to develop something like this for SSNs.

[PonoBill]

They need a lot more than that for any degree of security at all. SSN's are guessable, the numbers have meaning, some of which are obvious. It's a nine digit number with only four of the digits having any degree of randomness, and even those are really sequential. If you know where and when someone was born you have a very narrow set of numbers.

From a Carnegie-Mellon study: The Social Security number's first three digits -- called the "area number" -- is issued according to the Zip code of the mailing address provided in the application form. The fourth and fifth digits -- known as the "group number" -- transition slowly, and often remain constant over several years for a given region. The last four digits are assigned sequentially.

As a result, SSNs assigned in the same state to applicants born on consecutive days are likely to contain the same first four or five digits, particularly in states with smaller populations and rates of birth.

The simple fact that it's numbers instead of being alphanumeric case sensitive makes it a much smaller set of possible combinations to guess from. It shouldn't be used for identification at all, but it is, in fact it's primary, and that is MONUMENTALLY stupid.

[Weasels wake]

LifeLock

[TallDude]

A friend told me about filing a fraud alert with the 3 major credit reporting agencies. I'm definitely going to be more proactive with protecting my personal info. http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/flag.html

[NoSaltSuper]

Wow that is spooky. I'm seriously thinking about Lifelock as mentioned, I hear their ads all the time.

Next question, why on earth does anyone pay more in taxes each year to our wasteful government, to get a refund? Your money is earning zero interest and it's a free loan to the gov.. Every year I try to owe up to about $1k.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack, it's just silly to me is all.

[1tuberider]

Next question, why on earth does anyone pay more in taxes each year to our wasteful government, to get a refund? Your money is earning zero interest and it's a free loan to the gov.. Every year I try to owe up to about $1k.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack, it's just silly to me is all.

Many who are getting refunds are receiving far more than they paid in.  Look into earned
income credit for parents with incomes under 40K.