News Summary

• Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) is a type of tax fraud where criminals steal someone’s personal information and use it to file a fake tax return in their name.
• The fraudsters usually submit the false return early in the tax season before the real taxpayer files, so the refund is issued to them instead of the legitimate person.
• Victims usually discover the fraud only when their real tax return is rejected or when the tax authority, like the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), reports that a refund has already been issued.