Posted on 05/26/2015 3:35:50 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
Hackers gained access to personal information of 104,000 taxpayers this spring, downloading an online service the Internal Revenue Service uses to give Americans access to their past tax returns, the agency said Tuesday.
The information included several years’ worth of returns and other tax information on file with the IRS, Commissioner John Koskinen said in a press conference. The thieves hacked into a system called “Get Transcript,” clearing a security screen that requires users to know the taxpayer’s Social Security number, date of birth, address and tax filing status.
Those who successfully downloaded the transcripts gained access to information from prior years’ tax returns that could be used to file fraudulent tax returns that more closely resemble those of legitimate taxpayers, officials said. Koskinen said the system, which has temporarily been shut down, was targeted from February through mid-May. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They did not steal it from taxpayers, they stole it from the IRS
Hackers gained access to personal information of 104,000 taxpayers this spring, downloading an online service the Internal Revenue Service uses to give Americans access to their past tax returns, the agency said Tuesday.
The information included several years’ worth of returns and other tax information on file with the IRS, Commissioner John Koskinen said in a press conference.
The numbers are up. .... Now it's 104,000 taxpayers with stolen information.
Time to "deep six" the IRS and go with a flat tax, or some alternative SIMPLER form of collection.
The IRS is a dinosaur that is SICK and is no longer functional in terms of what America needs to flourish and GO FORWARD.
I agree. But having been the victim of identity theft with the IRS before, I think the IRS bears responsibility to inform the 104,000 AND to pay heavily for not safeguarding the data.
I bet they didn’t get any of Al Sharpton’s information since he doesn’t pay his taxes. See. He’s not so dumb after all./sarc
This happened to us....and to 3 other people I work with. As soon as it happened, I knew it was the IRS that was hacked. The IRS customer service rep said that they sent out so many letters about to the affected that it was “like confetti.” Does anyone here think that they took responsibility for the breach?
I wonder how many records the Democrats are going to get on GOP candidates?
“The numbers are up. .... Now it’s 104,000 taxpayers with stolen information.”
Wait until you see the revised numbers next quarter.
Exactly! What a bunch of chumps trying to peddle that swill.
You can really rely on the government “workers” to keep your data safe and secure.
Either the data was stolen from the IRS or from our Odumbocare website. (Another story for another time perhaps.)
Our tax preparer - first one in my tax-paying history, the number of years I will not divulge - has advised us to file an extension in January 2016 and forward to supercede another entity filing in our stead before the April 15 deadline.
The IRS is mad because they don’t want the competition.
Boy did I dodge a bullet. I went to IRS website couple weeks ago and clicked on the “get transcript”. It takes you to a webpage that looks like its still the IRS.GOV. But I noticed that the URL was not “secure” and I didn’t like the way it looked. I closed out, typed in IRS.GOV, official website (NORTON security approved) and tried it again. Nope, not secured. I listened to my gut that said, don’t go here.
Whew....
Will give it a try and see what happens. If I can’t get an image do you have one?
Okay, went there and things looked okay - did the transcript thing and it said ‘was unavailable at this time’ then hit transcript types and it still looked okay.
The extension will be d I disregarded as soon as a subsequent return is efiled.
Roger that.
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