Fergie's Tech Blog

Identity Thieves Tap Into Lucrative Tax Fraud

Lisa Myers, Amna Nawaz, and the NBC News Investigative Unit:

Evangelos Soukas is perhaps not the most likely of consultants for the IRS, but he may be among the most qualified. Currently serving out a seven-and-a-half year sentence in a California prison for various identity theft scams — including more than a dozen counts of false claims to the IRS — Soukas was brought Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee to testify about his fraud experience, and the simplicity with which he made off with more than $43,000 in taxpayers' money.

"This was an easy way to get money," he said. "And if I wanted to, I could hijack other people's identities and never get caught."

Soukas' scam involved using stolen, personal information to file fake online tax returns with the IRS. With the help of refund anticipation loans — which allow a taxpayer access to an anticipated refund within just a matter of days — Soukas was able to collect on the funds before the fraud could be detected.

More here.

Note: Mr. Soukas was allowed to testify after an attempt by the Department of Justice to mysteriously block his testimony.

posted by Fergie @ 4/12/2007 09:08:00 PM