Obama IRS taxpayer data theft seven times larger than originally thought

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/26/technology/irs-data-theft/

For the second time, the IRS has revised the estimated damage of a
criminal syndicate's massive theft of American taxpayer data.

In May 2015, the government agency said criminals used a tool on the IRS
website to steal the tax forms of 104,000 people. Then in August, it
revised that number up to 330,000.

On Friday, the tax-collection agency revealed that number is now closer to
720,000.

The latest number is the result of a nine month investigation by the U.S.
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Investigators found that "390,000 additional taxpayer accounts" were
affected. Fraudsters tried to target an additional 295,000 taxpayer
transcripts than previously thought, but "access was not successful," the
IRS said.

"We appreciate the work of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration to identify these additional taxpayers whose accounts may
have been accessed. We are moving quickly to help these taxpayers," IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen said in a statement.

Starting next week, the IRS will send letters to those taxpayers to warn
them about potential identity theft, offer free credit protection and give
them an extra PIN to protect future tax filings.

Until the spring of last year, the IRS website provided a tool called "Get
Transcript." It was meant to help taxpayers who lose track of old tax
documents. They could easily download several years of tax forms for tasks
like applying for a mortgage or college financial aid.

It was a popular tool. Americans used it to download 23 million
transcripts in the first few months of 2015, the agency said.

To keep out fraudsters, the "Get Transcript" tool asked for lots of
personal information before granting access: Social Security numbers,
birthdays, physical addresses and more.

Related: 7 steps to avoid becoming a tax scam victim
An unidentified cybermafia used previously acquired stolen information to
dupe the "Get Transcript" tool and downloaded millions of tax documents
related to the 720,000 people whose tax forms had been stolen.

Tax forms contain much more sensitive information, including salary,
family information, and property and investment values. With this
additional stolen information, criminals can claim bogus tax refunds -- or
open fraudulent credit lines.

The cybermafia members posed as legitimate taxpayers and tried to download
forms between January 2014 and May 2015, the IRS said. That means the
fraud stretched back more than year earlier than previously thought.
The IRS disabled the online document tool last year to prevent further
fraud.

Related: Coming soon: New steps to prevent tax refund fraud
This incident is a curious one. It wasn't a hack -- or even a data breach.
These fraudsters didn't manage to break into IRS computers at all. They
just turned a useful IRS feature into a leaky faucet -- by answering all
the verification questions correctly.

This data leak shows how difficult it is nowadays to verify true
identities.

That's one reason the IRS has started an experimental program in which it
gives select taxpayers a six-digit PIN. It's an additional layer of
protection, like a passcode.

PINs are currently only available to tax fraud victims and residents of
Florida, Georgia and Washington. The agency wants to take this pilot
program nationwide.

The IRS is extending this PIN to the 720,000 people whose tax documents
were exposed in this incident. However, it's not offering that protection
to the other 575,000 people -- even though they arguably need it too
(given that criminals already have their Social Security numbers and can
already claim tax refunds in their names).

IRS law enforcement agents are hunting for the fraudsters who did this.



--
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the six
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America. The only American president to deliberately import a
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.

Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth
certificate.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.

Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.

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[Leroy N. Soetoro]