Shocking: IRS has less identity theft security than Etsy

They rehire people fired for snooping, they allow pretty much anyone into facilities and restricted areas where all our sensitive information is kept, and there’s no telling how many unauthorized current and former employees are able to steal identities as a result.

And, you thought they just ruined people’s lives with audits. That’s novice stuff. This is the IRS.

I have personal experience with this. I had a fraudulent tax return filed under my Social Security number in 2012. As a result, both my refunds from 2012 and 2013 were put under administrative hold or some such nonsense with no notification to me or indication of how to remove them from hold. The 2012 one just arrived four months ago after I finally got someone on the phone who said, “Huh, I don’t really know why there’s a hold on this. It shouldn’t have anything to do with the fraudulent return at this point. It should be to you within two-to-four weeks.” I am also unable to retrieve any tax transcripts online and have had to go physically to the IRS on several occasions because the IRS system reads the fraudulent return’s identifying information as mine, even though they know it’s a fake. It has been more than two years. Every year, I run into roadblocks attempting to file my taxes because of this breach from 2012, as does my husband since he is now linked to this fraud perpetrator in the IRS’ system as well. At no point, have I felt well-informed about this situation, that anyone at the IRS knows how to fix it, or is interested in doing so.

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