A “sophisticated” organised crime syndicate used the IRS website to steal tax forms full of personal financial information on 104,000 taxpayers. Until the IRS discovered this latest data leak, its website provided a service called “Get Transcript.” It’s an easy way to download several years of tax forms for tasks like applying for a mortgage, or college financial aid. An unnamed cybermafia used this app to download forms full of personal information. They posed as legitimate taxpayers, and tried to download forms on 200,000 people between February and May. They got away with half of them, the IRS said. The crooks used about 15,000 of them to claim tax refunds in other people’s names.
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