Remember the hit single by the Jackson Five “ABC easy as 123″?

A B C , Its easy as
1 2 3 , as simple as
do re mi, A B C, 1 2 3
baby you and me girl

In case you don’t remember the song, click here to play:  Jackson 5 ABC

Apparently stealing your tax return has become as easy as 123.

The number is growing by the seconds.  According to an article by CNN.com, the IRS has identified at least 6.5 billion in tax return fraud cases related to identity theft last year. Imagine that! These are the cases that they have identified and do not include the ones that have slipped through their huge cracks. Wondering what amount has slipped through the cracks? You guessed it – the IRS refuses to answer that question. CNN was able to interview IRS Deputy Commissioner, Beth Tucker, and still walked away with no concrete answer.

It is Sooooo…. easy to steal tax returns that inmates are able to run these scams behind bars and are doing so every day in this Key West, Monroe County prison: See CNN video below

When asked whether the IRS has disappointed him or his city, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn stated, “I don’t know, I haven’t seen them, as far as I’m concerned they are M.I.A., they have not been helpful, they have not been a player and they have not taken responsibility for their side of enforcement”  – you know its bad when a politician goes public and admits that the IRS (a government run entity) is eluding their responsibility. Continue reading →

Two weeks ago I found out my tax refund was stolen due to identity theft.  Since those two weeks have passed I have watched as hundreds upon hundreds of tax payers report suffering the same victimization.  I’ve spoken to even more co-workers that have had the same thing happen to them and they have even more family members that have just found out they too were victims.

The one thing that bothers me most is that even though this theft identity continues, tax returns continue to be stolen while refunds are continuously mailed to thieves without so much as a “Would you please fax or email us a copy of your driver’s license or some valid form of ID?” from the IRS or these electronic tax services that allow the thieves to apply and retrieve a refund in your name or anyone else involved in the refund process.

As I mentioned in a previous post (Turbo Tax Fraud);  You need ID to travel, ID to drive, ID to smoke, ID to drink and ID to purchase explicit magazines.  Why in the Hell don’t you need ID to cash in the money that someone has worked hard to earn for an entire year and why hasn’t this been put in place yet?  This tax return fraud scam has been in full blown action since last year 2011. Continue reading →