This is the fourth in a series of blogs looking at tax fraud at stoptheftclass.com. Tax fraud is a very serious problem in the United States. Perhaps not serious enough to erase the federal deficit, but certainly enough to fund some much-needed projects in the infrastructure here in the US.

The problem is that even as prosecutions increase and the IRS improves its ability to stop many false tax returns up front, identity thieves are also increasing their efforts. As reported in www.bostonglobe.com.

What identity thieves do, is play on volume. So if they file 10 returns and 9 are stopped, the 10th one went through and they got the money.

In case after case, court records show criminals have used tax-filing software to obtain refunds that are in the thousands of dollars, often receiving the funds paid via the US Treasury on debit cards or by direct deposit.

The problem is so rampant and the scheme so simple that even prisoners are committing tax fraud while behind bars!

Prisoners inside jails across the country have obtained stolen Social Security numbers and filed thousands of false returns. Criminals in foreign locales have pilfered the personal information of Americans and received refunds. Thieves have even stolen the Social Security numbers of thousands of children, as well as tens of thousands of dead people, to obtain fraudulent tax refunds.