Attorney General Strange Introduces New Tax Fraud Prevention System

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Identity theft protection is a top priority during tax season. Now state lawmakers are taking steps to protect Alabamians from tax return fraud.

The IRS says tax return fraud is one of the most common crimes in the country, because it is such an easy crime to commit.

“The FBI says there’s more money in the criminal world with tax refunds than in the drug business,” said Julie Magee, the IRS Commissioner of Revenue for Alabama. “So it’s very lucrative for them to do and they can’t get caught. General, we have a very hard time catching these people because it’s electronically anywhere in the world.”

That is why Attorney General Luther Strange is doing what he can to help Alabama citizens stay safe from cyber criminals.

“We’re talking about tax returns here, with this is the emphasis because this is a week of taking time to alert people to that particular threat, but day in and day out, your own personal credit information and your own personal health information and other things should be secure,” said Strange.

He is helping promote a new alert system from the Alabama Department of Revenue. After registering online, users will get an alert whenever a tax return is filed using their social security number. Officials hope the system will help cut down on tax fraud.

“ID thieves stole my information and used it to file state and federal income tax returns in my name,” said Joe Garrett. An identity thief used one of Garrett’s old tax return forms to fill out a new one and file it in Garrett’s name. Garrett and his family spent months trying to recover from the tax fraud scam.

“Of course you feel, you know, violated. And you’re scared, you’re worried about what’s going to happen, ‘Am I going to get my refund?’ ‘Is this probably going to show up somewhere else, are they going to use my information to open credit accounts?'” Garrett shared.

It is a situation state leaders want to prevent. They hope the new alert system will make a difference.

“Cause it’s your tax dollars and we are not going to fund criminal activity with your tax dollars,” Magee said.

To sign up for the new ADOR alerts, click here.