This is the second in a series of blogs here at stoptheftclass.com looking at an all-too common form of theft – tax fraud. It is terrifying just how easy it is.

Across the country, the theft of taxpayer identities has taken off, while receiving far less attention than the loss of credit card information. As reported in www.bostonglobe.com.

How easy is this? One convicted of tax fraud said it was so simple all you needed was a 6th grade education. Even some drug dealers, always with an eye out for easy profits, have turned to taxpayer identity theft after hearing how uncomplicated it was to scam the IRS. A medical assistant at a nursing home stole the identities of hundreds of patients. A prison guard stole the identities of inmates and filed false returns under their names.

Just how rampant is tax fraud? All told, in just the first six months of last year, 1.6 million taxpayers were affected by identity theft, compared with 271,000 for all of 2010, according to a recent audit by the Treasury Department’s inspector general. While the IRS said it discovered many of the incidents, the cumulative thefts have resulted in billions of dollars in potentially fraudulent refunds, according to an array of government reports.

One IRS Commissioner admitted that a friend of his, who also happens to be the chief of police for one municipality claims that street crime is down because everybody is now filing false IRS returns.

We will continue to look at tax fraud in the next stoptheftclass.com blog.