Supervisory special agent, from the Fraud Division of the Tampa Internal Revenue Service, Jim Robnett, who is an accountant with investigative training and experience, spoke at an informational meeting Tuesday afternoon at SeaBreeze Regional Recreation Center. The Villages Homeowners Association and The Villages Community Development District government staff sponsored the important event.
VHA president, Fred Briggs, introduced Robnett; Detective Jeffrey Cohen from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Fraud Division in Bushnell, and Sgt.Tom Calhoun, who investigates fraud and scam cases with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. Villages district manager, Janet Tutt, her assistant, Brittany Wilson, plus a large group of VHA officers were in attendance. A representative from Seniors vs. Crime was also introduced. Although this is a very serious subject, Robnett used humor and a fast-paced powerpoint presentation to provide the information.
“Most everyone knows about credit card and bank fraud, but many people don’t know how very pervasive it is — especially in Florida, with its large population of retirees,” Robnett began. He spoke about offshore tax havens, corrupt public officials, narcotics traffickers, both domestic and international, as sources of fraudulent crimes. “Our job is to protect our money and the U.S. Treasury. Although it sometimes takes some time to build evidence for our cases, in which we must prove criminal intent for crimes — committed in living rooms and corporate board rooms, we have a 93 percent conviction rate.”
Robnett showed dozens of newspaper clippings reflecting long prison sentences for identity theft, which leads to myriad other crimes. “The IRS began investigating fraud in 1919, and one of the most noteworthy cases was jailing Al Capone in 1928 on tax fraud. Even president President Hoover wanted to take Capone down.” He showed reports on gangster Dutch Schultz, religious leader Jim Bakker, actor Wesley Snipes, and many other famous people who did time for this type of crime.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses our personal information without our permission to commit crimes. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months, even years, and muc of their hard earned money, repairing the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record. There is huge financial fallout. Identity theft victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or transportation, and some innocent victims have even been arrested for crimes they didn’t commit.
“These criminals work full time to put together many pieces of information about us, through data breaches; through employees who have access to our records, and from our credit card receipts, to create fraudulent identities to rob us. Computer hacking has become so sophisticated today, it is difficult even for law enforcement people to stay abreast.” Robnett lamented recent federal budget cuts, which significantly reduced the IRS’ ability to investigate and prosecute identity theft, but said his agency, using new techniques, has gotten much more efficient and effective at doing their jobs.
Thieves are interested in many pieces of personal information: our social security numbers, drivers licenses, medical and family information, bank and investment accounts, email addresses, our internet provider, even genetic and genealogic information. Many employees who collect and sell personal data are found in retail stores and restaurants; hospitals, medical and insurance company offices, post offices, the Veteran’s Administration — often the lowest paid workers — make extra money selling lists of personal information to scammers. Fraud has been uncovered among unemployment and government employees, Medicare and Medicaid workers — just about everywhere.
With its small staff, the IRS has a large challenge, Robnett explained, to process 2.6 million tax returns every day during the busiest January 15 to April 15 tax season, and has few ways to discover whether the bona fide taxpayer has filed a report, or a scammer has done so to collect a stolen tax refund check. Fraud investigators only comprise about 3% of IRS employees. The good news is the IRS collaborates with many local law enforcement agencies; and postal officials, to intercept suspected mail. When the crooks are caught, trophies from their often flamboyant lifestyles, like luxury homes and cars, are confiscated, and the proceeds returned to the U.S. Treasury.
How can we minimize becoming a victim? We should not carry our social security or Medicare cards, and be very discriminating regarding giving out personal information. We need to check our credit reports every twelve months. Robnett suggested staggering the timing of credit report requests from the three major credit bureaus to keep an ongoing check on our status. We need to protect personal papers at home and work; protect computers with firewalls and other security software and use complex passwords.
We need to shred all personal documents and beware of phishing, whereby our computer or smart phone data is intercepted. “The IRS is in the process of adding an additional layer of security — in the form of an identity protection PIN. This is in a pilot program right now. More information can be obtained by calling 1-800 908-4490. Robnett also mentioned a Tampa-area Congressman who has introduced a bill to have separate numbers for our social security and Medicare identification. irs.gov/latest-news.
Robnett emphasized the IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or request personal or financial information by phone, text or social media.
Citizens should report any incidents of identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or 1-877 436-4338; and also file a report with our local police or sheriff’s office. Victims need to contact the IRS and file Form 14039, which is an identity theft affidavit. The three major credit bureaus’ fraud departments should also be notified: www.equifax.com; www.experian.com and www.transunion.com. We need to close any accounts that have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
Robnett ended by warning the audience to never be intimidated by phone callers who claim you owe back taxes and there’s a warrant out for your arrest. “These are scams to get your information,” he repeated. “It’s never true — we just don’t do business that way.” Robnett and his associates are available at: james.robnett@ci.irs.gov; kim.pennington@ci.irs.gov and lou.snyder@ci.irs.gov.
