It can happen to anyone and now it seems it’s happened to the Internal Revenue Service as well.
The IRS announced that it will be notifying taxpayers after criminals gained unauthorized access to information on about 100,000 accounts through their “Get Transcript” online application. This information included Social Security information, date of birth and street address. According to the IRS these attempts were quite complex in nature and appear to have started in February and ran through mid-May. In all, about 200,000 attempts were made from questionable email domains, with more than 100,000 of those attempts successfully clearing authentication hurdles.
The IRS will be notifying all taxpayers who’s accounts where unauthorized access was attempting and will be offering free credit monitoring for the approximately 100,000 taxpayers whose “Get Transcript” accounts were accessed to ensure this information isn’t being used through other financial avenues.
While the IRS is investigating this situation we would advise taxpayers to be extra vigilant in monitoring their financial and credit activity. In addition, we would advise taxpayers to review the IRS website for information on tax scams.