Super bummer!

[Dusty2]

Well it started with a very disappointing two dives at Sund rock yesterday. Then I stopped for dinner on the way home and left my lights on and came out to a dead battery, :angry:

Then I had dedicated today to getting my taxes filed and all went well till I got them all done but when I tried to file them I got a message that it could not be submitted because a return had already been filed with that SSN. After several hours trying to get thru to tech support for turbo tax, they checked and sure enough someone in florida had used my SSN but not my name or anything else to file a return back in March so I hop on the phone and try to contact IRS only to find out they have closed and won't be open till Monday and of course just about everything else is closed too. I called life lock and they flagged my file and will notify the card companies and banks but there is still a ton of stuff that has to be done. Including a paper return to the IRS along with an affidavit that someone misused my SSN to file a false return. and notify social security ect, ect, add infinitium :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

[fmerkel]

Ouch! That is a couple leaps beyond frustrating.

[Linedog]

Damn, when it rains it pours!

[Blow-N-Bubbles]

Change your luck, buy a lottery ticket !!

[nwbobber]

Doing taxes on friday the 13th? Hmmm. I hope the other guy just made a typo, and it all works out for ya. Could happen.

[Alexitt]

Ouch!!! Good luck getting it resolved...

[ArcticDiver]

Maybe it is the drugs, but other than being a PITA it doesn't sound too bad. File an extension, process a Mt Rainier of paperwork and on you go. Had your name been used too I'd be worried about what else was going to jump up from the weeds to bite.

Apparently it was a paper return or it would have been caught right away. Now, it is just a matter of time before it gets straightened out.

Good Luck.

[Dusty2]

And now for the ..... rest of the story! or should I say part dou.

After spending several hours today listening to damn computer voices offering me every option except one that applies I managed to speak to person after person tell me that they don't handle and I need to talk to this department only to be back to another computer to find they don't do that either. I had to speak to an IRS lady who was obviously suffering from delayed stress syndrome and making me pry each bit of info out of her one at a time, Then I am told I need to talk to the FTC and social security and the three credit bureaus and fill out several forms for various agencies and file a police report and File a paper return with another form and 2 forms of ID then it may take up to a year for me to get my money back from the IRS.

I found that this dude or dudett filed in florida and walked with a check for over $9000.00 dollars paid to a bogus account which has probably long closed. And to make it sweeter the person I talked to said they probably did dozens if not hundreds more to others too. The loses this year alone will amount to billions of our taxes going to these crooks. I think I'm in the wrong occupation.

[oldsalt]

. I think I'm in the wrong occupation.

No Dusty, you aren't a crook and never will be. Keep the occupation you have now, building lights, taking pictures, and helping other divers identify things. I keep thinking I am going to order one of your lights but things like a broken refrigerator and car repairs keep sucking up my available cash. Remember that despite your recent round of misfortune, there are many of us on the board pulling for you.
-Curt

[Joshua Smith]

And now for the ..... rest of the story! or should I say part dou.

After spending several hours today listening to damn computer voices offering me every option except one that applies I managed to speak to person after person tell me that they don't handle and I need to talk to this department only to be back to another computer to find they don't do that either. I had to speak to an IRS lady who was obviously suffering from delayed stress syndrome and making me pry each bit of info out of her one at a time, Then I am told I need to talk to the FTC and social security and the three credit bureaus and fill out several forms for various agencies and file a police report and File a paper return with another form and 2 forms of ID then it may take up to a year for me to get my money back from the IRS.

I found that this dude or dudett filed in florida and walked with a check for over $9000.00 dollars paid to a bogus account which has probably long closed. And to make it sweeter the person I talked to said they probably did dozens if not hundreds more to others too. The loses this year alone will amount to billions of our taxes going to these crooks. I think I'm in the wrong occupation.

You have my sympathy, fwiw. Sounds like my idea of hell.

[Dusty2]

. I think I'm in the wrong occupation.

No Dusty, you aren't a crook and never will be. Keep the occupation you have now, building lights, taking pictures, and helping other divers identify things. I keep thinking I am going to order one of your lights but things like a broken refrigerator and car repairs keep sucking up my available cash. Remember that despite your recent round of misfortune, there are many of us on the board pulling for you.
-Curt

Thanks Curt, I never envisioned that finishing my taxes would lead to this. I understand what you mean about things breaking. I firmly believe that there is a gremlin assigned to each of us whose job is to watch our accounts and look for extra funds. They then assign a buddy to sabotage something in your home or car that will consume more than the excess. :angry:

Yes Josh it certainly is. I thought I loved computers but the way they are used by the banks and businesses to place as many blocks as they can to prevent you from talking to a real person is infuriating. That and the foreigners they force us to deal with when we finally manage to hurdle that last firewall is inhuman.

[ArcticDiver]

Best advice I can think of at this time is to contact the Taxpayer Advocate Office. Their job is to help you solve problems.

Too bad the person didn't file electronically. Had they the electonic matching program would have caught the problem right away and rejected the filing. But, what is.... Frustrating is too mild a word but the folks I mentioned have been helpful to me in the past.

[Joshua Smith]

This actually sounds worthy of pulling out the big guns. Contacting your Congressman and trying to get the media involved, in other words. The news loves stories like this. Is Jesse Jones still doing his thing?

[ArcticDiver]

Guess the pain meds are making me a bit slow, Oh, OK, slower, than normal. I 've been thinking only of the IRS side of the event. Did you say that you overpaid your taxes by $9000 and the person got all that? Also, that the person did not return the money or do anything to notify the IRS there had been an error? I'm trying to get a handle on just what the facts are.

To this point it looked to me like someone had just made a clerical error on their paper tax return and it would be cleared up straight away. Actually, mistakes where people put down the wrong social security number, or address or such aren't that awfully uncommon. But, your comments seem to say someone knew enough of your affairs to file, not just an erroneous tax return, a fraudulent one. Two different kettles of fish. In either case you may have some hoops to jump through but eventually bet you get your money.

Just what is it?


Oh yes, the paperwork! Yep, there is lots and lots and lots. Now all the people involved have to figure out what the facts are. Are you the "real" person or is it the other filer. One thing I do as a matter of routine is not use my income tax as a savings account. I alway, always, always make sure I owe the IRS money at the end of the year. Not only do I dislike making the Feds an interest free loan but if there is a clerical error somewhere no one has any of my money. Someone uses my social security number by mistake and they get a bill, not a check. You get the idea.

[Dusty2]

The facts are these, No the IRS did not owe me $9000.00, Wish they did! This was totally intentional designed to defraud the IRS and get the maximum they could without triggering an audit. It is a totally bogus return. They used only my ssn and name the rest was a con job and not based on my return or location at all. From what I have been told these are very well organized and well informed crooks who make literally millions and this year probably billions by fooling the IRS computers into accepting totally bogus returns. The agent said this year is the worst in history for this kind of crime. I don't know how they get the returns through but it's obvious there is one hell of a big hole in the IRS's security software and organized crime has a handle on it. The biggest % are coming from Florida. What they do is set up a bank account and have all the returns auto deposited to it then as soon as they get a bunch of refunds they zero out the account by transferring the money electronically to another account possibly off shore and they are long gone before anyone is aware they were ever there if indeed they ever were. It is entirely possible that they are operating outside the US and doing it all by computer. Scary isn't it.

[Jeff Pack]

there was a special this morning on CNBC about this I recorded, but havent watched yet.

[ArcticDiver]

Thanks for clearing that up. I do know people who haven't a clue and do have refunds in that magnitude. Yep, there are an almost limitless number of people whose main goal in life is to scam someone else. Combine that with ineptitude by government, companies, etc. and it is a problem.

As I posted that is one of the reasons my famiy handles its' taxes as we do. No way for us to get caught up in this particular kind of scam. Plus, it offends me to make the Feds an interest free loan.

But, I don't think it is possible to immunize against all the threats. Too many creative people spending too much time plotting and planning.

My bias is that electronic financial tools are actually safer than paper as long as they are used intelligently. No debit cards, record confirmation numbers, change passwords frequently, be careful where the internet is accessed, only use encrypted computers, etc. But, security is a chore I'd rather not have.

Good luck on your paper quest.

[Dusty2]

Update! No the IRS has not cleared my return yet but I just read this article regarding ID fraud filling tax returns. Give it a read.
86,000 fraudulent returns this year alone! over 5.6 billion of our tax dollars given away to computer crooks.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/OTUS/loved-die ... 6nyuXmepAM

[ArcticDiver]

Yep, it is a shame. Interestingly, from what I've been reading almost all of the fraudulent tax returns are paper. At least that is what the IRS released info seems to say. The computer returns seem to be better screened and have few of this kind of scam. Guess the lessons are to not give them any money in advance and file by computer.

[Dusty2]

Yep, it is a shame. Interestingly, from what I've been reading almost all of the fraudulent tax returns are paper. At least that is what the IRS released info seems to say. The computer returns seem to be better screened and have few of this kind of scam. Guess the lessons are to not give them any money in advance and file by computer.

Yes what I have learned is the sooner you file the better and always file electronically. Most of the fraud is done as soon as they can get it in to avoid giving you a chance to get yours in before them. And the inspector general said that the electronic filling is much better protected since everything is checked for errors electronically using the prior years return and pin number prior to the return being accepted and if there is a discrepancy the return is just not accepted. It isn't processed by a paper shuffler who is being graded by how many returns they can process a day.