Old Fashioned Theft Leads to New Fashioned Identity Theft

A case out of my old home town of Visalia, California lets us know that sometimes there’s just not much you can do to prevent yourself from being a victim of identity theft. Back in 2011 Rebekah Root either stole documents from an IRS office in Visalia or she obtained them. (The original announcement from the DOJ doesn’t make it clear which is the case.) She then proceeded to commit identity theft using those documents.

TIGTA (the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) investigated the theft, and when they found out that the paperwork was used to file returns on those individuals IRS Criminal Investigation joined in finding the culprit. Ms. Root pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud, making a false claim for a tax refund, and aggravated identity theft. She received 45 months at ClubFed for the $50,000 in fraudulent tax refunds she had claimed.

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