H&R Block is an extremely generous company! They’ve sent you a $5,666.10 refund check and you didn’t even file your taxes with them! Isn’t that nice?
From the Seacost Online:
A Woodbridge Road man received a check for $5,666.10 from H&R Block on March 18, but hadn’t even filed his taxes with the company, according to a police report.
where to turnIf you suspect your personal information has been stolen, contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which helps taxpayers clear up problems with tax returns and other documents.
Upon contacting H&R Block, he discovered that the filing had been done online, and the check was sent to a bank in Utah. However, the bank wouldn’t deposit the check because the name on it didn’t match the name on the account.
H&R Block in turn sent the check to the physical address it had for the taxpayer — which is how the local man discovered someone submitting taxes on his behalf.
“They did the taxes for him,” said Sgt. Martin Doherty, speaking of identity thieves. “They wanted H&R Block to forward the check to them.”
If your personal information has been stolen and you suspect the scammers of filing your income taxes for you, you can contact the Taxpayer Advocate in your state.
Scammers file taxes for York man [Seacoast Online]
Find Your Local Taxpayer Advocate [IRS]
(Photo:Maulleigh)
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Who got more back?
talk about brazenly stupid. Tax Fraud, Identity Theft, AND Mail Fraud.
Too bad the guys probably going to get off with nothing, hes got enough charges here to cause him to go away for a long ass fucking time.
I would think most people would be happy if someone else did their taxes for them and they got a refund.
You know, one of my buddies had something similar happen. Turned out to be a misskeying of the “fraudsters” SSN. Somebody just flipped the last two digits, and both returns were now under my buddies SSN. Took forever to deal with.
I hope that H&R Block is taking this seriously.
Wouldn’t it be easy to track who opened up the Utah bank account? It’s not like the scammers were depositing it overseas. We have rules here… right? Right?
@NefariousNewt: I wouldn’t be happy to get $5,000 back if I was supposed to get $10,000 back. I think pissed would be closer to it.
@NefariousNewt: Agree. Deposit check in a high yield money market, inform H&R Bloack it will be 6-8 weeks to process the refund minus a $25 refund charge.
so, does he get to keep the money?
@CRNewsom: If you’re owed $10,000, you’re doing something wrong. In an HSBC account that’s $300 in interest.
@NefariousNewt: Yes, but the fraudstes most likely lied on the tax return to inflate the refund (adding a bunch of fake dependents, business expenses, etc). So had the scam worked, the fraudsters would have gotten a 5k refund, and the victim would have gotten an audit.
We have rules here… right? Right?
We do, but since it’s just a piss-ant individual that got ripped off, not a business, I’m sure the police and FBI see no need for charges.
Falconfire, hyphens play an important role in sentence context. Take these two examples below. 1 hyphen placement, 2 very different meanings…
“Too bad the guys probably going to get off with nothing, hes got enough charges here to cause him to go away for a long-ass fucking time.”
“Too bad the guys probably going to get off with nothing, hes got enough charges here to cause him to go away for a long ass-fucking time.”
Both, however, are correct.
The same thieves can do my taxes, and pay the $2k deficit I owe.
@sleze69: How are you calculating that? It should be treated as an annuity with monthly compounding, as I would have to put the money in the account in installments…
/I don’t get back $10k, not even close. I would be happy with $1000
inside job. the last time i went to h&r block i found out a school bus driver was doing my taxes. dont plan on going back.
@fostina1: A school bus driver moonlighting as a CPA?
@fostina1: What if that person is a CPA, but drives buses in the tax off-season?
Local Police Dept:
“Someone stole you identity, put you into thousands of dollars of debt, and possibly big trouble with the IRS? I’m sorry, we just don’t have the manpower to help you.”
“A Best Buy customer is refusing to show his receipt after purchasing some blank CD’s and a coke? We’ll be right over with a few officers.”
@CRNewsom: Oh yeah…that whole installment thing. Still, keeping $833.33 dollars a month in a 3.05% bank instead of giving it to the government would yield $143, if my math is correct.
But yeah…it would be nice to have a little bonus at the end of the year.
Aprilo’neil needs to proofread her blockquote in the article a little more carefully. In copying/pasting the article out of the original source, some sidebar “Where to Turn” stuff got carried into the paste where it doesn’t make any sense.
It’s hard enough figuring out what’s going on here without an editing error by The Congolmerist messing things up too.
Didn’t someone post according to the USPS or some other gov’t agency if you get something in the mail you didn’t request or pay-for it is considered a gift?
Adding…not keeping…bah whatever.
You dont get to keep it as a gift. You might think so if you did. Here is what would probably happen:
You cash your check and go about your way happy to have such money. Then, About 3 years later the IRS comes knocking with an audit. Its actually a letter pointing out that you owe the money back PLUS interest and penalties.
Thats probably why they forged the taxes. Therefore, It would have been years before the IRS caught up to them. But they would.
@NefariousNewt: But then who does the IRS go after when it turns out the scammer lied on the tax return?
@heavylee-again: cpa’s must not be as good a job as i thought, if you think its no big deal. i still prefer to not have a bus driver do my taxes.
Some guy pulled this successfully on my friend – he didn’t find out until the IRS rejected his tax filing, saying they’d already been filed.
The IRS sent the refund check to a bank account in Cincinnati (remotely opened by the thief), where it was then wired out of the country.
So I take it this wasn’t a gay couple this happened to?
@fostina1:
I remember in one of my business law classes in college, the professor spoke about how hard it was to become a CPA and how difficult the test was. At the risk of being accused of making an unfair generalization, if the person at H&R Block is a buss driver, I suspect they’re not qualified to be a CPA.
I’ve dealt with H&R Block a few times (never again) and I can comfortably say that none of the people I’ve ever met there was a Certified Public Accountant. They’re regular people trained how to use a proprietary piece of software that does the work for them. It’s basically the same thing you use yourself if you file your taxes online with H&R Block. They DO have actually CPAs you can have go over your taxes for you, but it’s considered a premium service that you must pay extra for.
Actual CPAs, that is.
@InfiniTrent: Did your friend get his money? Is it not theft if the IRS fails to turn over his actual refund, if applicable, to him?
@Buran: “Did your friend get his money? Is it not theft if the IRS fails to turn over his actual refund, if applicable, to him?”
He got his state refund the other day – I don’t know about federal yet. They’re going to give him his money, and understand that the first filing was fraud.
The theft of the money was from the government/IRS. Also, his identity (social, etc.) was stolen, which is what enabled the false return to be filed.
No receipts were harmed in the making of this story . . .
wow, scary how something like this might of almost work.
Good thing I owe the IRS thousands. Oh wait.. that’s not a good thing.
If I was an identity thief, I would obviously have no problem claiming that I had every deduction under the sun. Even if the IRS flags an audit, the H&R Block loan comes right away…
But what would tax dog do?
Ooh! Smithers… that precision assault got my tax return early. Thank you, masked stranger!
@InfiniTrent:
Another good reason to file as soon as humanly possible …. to beat anyone else from filing under your name before you do.
I always do mine as quick as possible, just to get it out of the way so I dont have to worry about it later. And I never get a refund… I always pay (this year it was about $170 state & fed combined).
I was suprised about 4 years ago to find that they had deposited $25,270.00 into my account. BTW trying to tell the IRS they made a mistake and give them their money back is freakin hard.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of H&R Block’s business and their lacking of identification proof when filing taxes, anyone can show up to their retail locations and file taxes in your name.
That’s right, no identification. Not even asking for a SS card.
DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY. THE LENDING BANK HSBC WILL ASK FOR IT BACK.
Contact their lending provider, HSBC bank and H&R Block security/investigations for Fraud.