--- title: Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool | TIME description: It’s thought the thieves used already-stolen identity information to send phony requests through the IRS’ site. canonical: https://time.com/video/XhEO3Y7M/ og:title: Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool og:description: It’s thought the thieves used already-stolen identity information to send phony requests through the IRS’ site. og:url: https://time.com/video/XhEO3Y7M/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XhEO3Y7M/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool twitter:description: It’s thought the thieves used already-stolen identity information to send phony requests through the IRS’ site. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XhEO3Y7M/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool [Watch (HLS stream): Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XhEO3Y7M.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2015-05-27. It’s thought the thieves used already-stolen identity information to send phony requests through the IRS’ site._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:19 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Reptile Expert Says Thieves Stole His Duffel Bag Containing 3 Pythons](/video/g1yv2fmM/) ### Reptile Expert Says Thieves Stole His Duffel Bag Containing 3 Pythons [Swedish Crown Jewels Stolen By Thieves Who Got Away on a Motorboat](/video/GNEvwjBo/) ### Swedish Crown Jewels Stolen By Thieves Who Got Away on a Motorboat [The 5 Most Common Tax Scams, According To The IRS](/video/wQTNpTGF/) ### The 5 Most Common Tax Scams, According To The IRS --- ## Transcript The Internal Revenue Service says approximately 23 million used it's Get Transcript tool to download information about their tax refunds this season. And a new report indicates from February to mid May. Criminals used the same tool to steal the IRS data of some 100, 000 US taxpayers. Now, the IRS itself wasn't hacked. It still worked exactly as it was supposed to but this was theft and it was damaging. Thieves reportedly attempted to steal as many as 200, 000 records in Total the IRS paid out close to 50 million dollars in fraudulent returns before it spotted the suspicious behavior. And this may not be the worst news. According to the IRS the transcript tool required prior personal knowledge about the tax payer. Including Social Security information, date of birth, tax filing status and street address before accessing IRS systems. Meaning, anyone who got IRS data stolen was likely all ready a victim of identity theft. As for where that personal knowledge came from, take your pick. Ars Technica says this string of recent high- profile data breeches likely provided a lot of the data thieves needed to get into IRS systems. The IRS is notifying those 200, 000 people whose data thieves attempted to steal. Those 100, 000 who were compromised will receive credit monitoring through the IRS, and will be flagged as potential risks for theft in IRS records. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Thieves Stole $50M in Tax Refunds Using IRS's Online Tool","description":"It’s thought the thieves used already-stolen identity information to send phony requests through the IRS’ site.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XhEO3Y7M/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-27T15:59:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XhEO3Y7M.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/XhEO3Y7M/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/XhEO3Y7M/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```