Tax authorities in the US have revealed that the personal tax records of up to 100,000 people have been stolen.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal government's tax collecting authority, said yesterday that criminals used a system called “Get Transcript” to illegally download the tax details.
The transcripts can be used to claim fraudulent tax refunds.
The thieves had to negotiate an authentication system that included taxpayers' names, dates of birth, street addresses and Social Security (national ID) numbers. This kind of data about individuals is reportedly available for sale on the dark web.
IRS commissioner John Koskinen insisted that this was not the work of amateurs. “These actually are organised crime syndicates that not only we, but everybody in the financial industry, are dealing with,” he said.
Despite safeguards, the IRS believes that it paid out US$5.8 billion ( £4 billion) in fraudulent tax refunds in 2013. It blames organised crime in the US and abroad for around 80 percent of fraud.
What do you know about the dark web?
No comments:
Post a Comment