Efile rejects

[ChEAr$]

What I'm trying to figure out is just how anyone could steal my EFIN? Only way I know of is to have stolen it either from IRS or my software provider in house.
It appears on no file copies given to clients.

[Gene V]

What I'm trying to figure out is just how anyone could steal my EFIN? Only way I know of is to have stolen it either from IRS or my software provider in house.
It appears on no file copies given to clients.

My appears on Form 8879 top and bottom, which my clients get a copy

[Koss]

Efin

Only way I know of is to have stolen it either from IRS or my software provider in house. It appears on no file copies given to clients.

Do you give your clients a copy of Form 8879?

Your EFIN is part of the submission ID, and also part of your practitioner PIN. Drake software automatically prints these numbers on Form 8879.

Don't know if other software does the same thing...

BMK

[FEDUKE404]

EFIN places

What I'm trying to figure out is just how anyone could steal my EFIN? Only way I know of is to have stolen it either from IRS or my software provider in house.
It appears on no file copies given to clients.

What about Part II of Form 8879?

(And, if you know where to look, also frequently at the top of Form 8879)

FE

[BP.]

It appears on no file copies given to clients.

First six digits of the SID.

[manyhappyreturns]

Brick walls

I've run into brick walls with the Drake and the IRS and the FTC as well. Nobody wants to investigate. They all say there's no way to track down the crook. They can all take a report, but we all know what that means. I would think that the IP address or the SID number or the DCN or any of those other numbers in the transmission report would reveal some information, but nobody seems to think it's a problem. Maybe all these bogus refunds are going to the same address or bank account, which should raise the proverbial red flag, but investigating that is not in the IRS procedure manual. I'm supposed to wait for people to be ready to prepare their tax returns, then when they get rejected, they have to file a report with the IRS and the ITC and the credit bureaus, yada yada yada, then wait 6 months to hopefully get their refund. Meanwhile our crook is getting lots of money by fraudulent means and nobody thinks it's important to track him/her down.

I don't have any employees and I have never had my office or my computer broken into or tampered with. I did have some viruses, although the computer repair lady I always go to said the viruses were just the "mess you up" kind that make your computer do goofy things, and that nobody should have gotten access that way. I don't totally believe that, so it's a possibility that somebody got into my computer info remotely. I had AVG virus program, but my computer lady told me it doesn't do the job very well, so now I have Norton. Wish I'd known before the AVG isn't the best. But my computer is password protected with a very complicated password, and then to get into Drake, I have complicated passwords as well. I've changed my passwords several times and made them so complicated that sometimes I can't even get in.

[ruthc]

I pray for you!

@manyhappyreturns--

I can't imagine how much of a basket case I would be with the problem you are having. It is so great that you can call on someone so knowledgeable to lend a helping hand for you. He helped me in the past and I was so greatful!

Good luck and please let us know the results of this horrible situation. My prayers are definitely for you!!

[manyhappyreturns]

Okay, here are the numbers that appear on the reject report of one of the bogus returns:

Submission Id: 7741122013294imi3zqr
DCN: 00774112000013

The first 6 digits are my old deactivated EFIN, and it does appear on the top of the 8879 that I give copies of to all my clients.

So obviously the EFIN can be easily gotten, but wouldn't a person have to have a bunch of other info to actually use it?

I don't know what all the other numbers and letters mean, but it seems like those numbers can be used to track down where these bogus returns are coming from. Why does everybody I talk to at the IRS say they don't have a procedure for that in the manual? Why do they keep saying they're taking ID theft and tax fraud seriously when they don't even want a bit of juicy evidence? Meanwhile, me and my clients are suffering due to somebody's greed and I can't get anybody to do anything about it.

So far the list of agencies I've contacted with no results are Drake, the IRS, the FTC and the TIGTA. One of the choices on the TIGTA phone menu was for issues that you've tried to solve by contacting the IRS but to no avail, and if you choose that one, they forward you to the IRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[manyhappyreturns]

@manyhappyreturns--

I can't imagine how much of a basket case I would be with the problem you are having. It is so great that you can call on someone so knowledgeable to lend a helping hand for you. He helped me in the past and I was so greatful!

Good luck and please let us know the results of this horrible situation. My prayers are definitely for you!!

Thank you, Ruth! God is bigger than all this, but even knowing that, I'm still a basket case.

Linda

[Burke]

Have you tried contacting Nina Olsen, Taxpayer Advocate Service? That is an independent bureau within the IRS. You can Google for info. And I like Koss' suggestion re: the media. I think "60 Minutes" would be my first call, after Ms Olsen.

[ATSMAN]

Have you run the reports from Drake Online Database for the Rejected returns? Get the SID and then call IRS E-file help desk at 1-866-255-0654.

Last year I was perplexed by one rejection that I thought was ID fraud and it turned out to be a corrupt data string in the e-file that somehow escaped their testing and these people figured out.

If that does not work then I guess you will have to paper file the rejects and warn the taxpayer that their refunds will be delayed significantly.

Also if you feel you are being stonewalled by IRS, contact your senator and Rep. You pay their salaries!

[DonB]

Have you checked with other local preparers to see if they are having similar problems? Maybe worth a try.

[Terry]

I'm praying for you too

I know how I would be feeling in the same situation, and pray and trust everything works out well for you.
Take care,
Terry

[manyhappyreturns]

Thank you everybody for all your suggestions. I've been investigating every possibility and coming up short in all of them. My situation doesn't seem dire enough for the IRS to do something, and everywhere else I tried to get info has proven a waste of time and energy. So I'm just focusing on my clients now and trying to get as many returns done and signed and e-filed as possible in hopes that maybe the IRS will listen to me if every return I file is rejected. My last two were. This is just happening to clients I filed for in 2012. All of my new ones and also the early ones that I had ready to go in January and early February. The rejects started on Feb 4th and the ratio of rejects to accepted returns is getting higher and higher. I've schedule several appts in the next 3 days with former clients and if they are ALL rejected, I'm going to figure out a way to be noticed. Fortunately my e--services account shows that the culprit isn't using my new EFIN (that's why my new clients are safe), but now that he has all my last year's clients' info, he has lots of other options for e-filing.

Also, in my spare time (yeah, right) I'm going to start calling clients who don't usually come in till later in the season and let them know what happened so they can do whatever it takes to protect themselves from fraudulent use of their info for things other than taxes. I'm actually quite sure the culprit is only after free money from the government, but after all the returns are filed he/she may start looking into what else the info can be used for. This is why I think we've got to get this stopped. I was told oftentimes the IRS lets crooks get away with stuff in order to gather more evidence. I don't really know what more evidence they need to make a case. This is a clear case of tax fraud.

Keep the prayers coming, okay? Thanks!

Linda

[manyhappyreturns]

one more thing

One thing I found out is that the culprit knows how to hide his IP address when e-filing. Maybe this has to go on awhile before anybody can figure out where he is.