NEW LONDON- The good news is her tax return was filed and accepted by the IRS. The bad news? She wasn't the person who filed it, but whoever did used her social security number.
The New London woman didn't want Fox CT to identify her after all she's been through. But she did want to tell her story.
She was checking her email last week when she noticed a couple emails from TurboTax. She filed her 2013 returns with the service so the email didn't seem out of the ordinary.
"I looked, read it and it said, 'your returns have been sent.'"
The first email said "The IRS has accepted your return."
The second email said "Your refund is on its way."
There was only one problem: "Not only had I not filed a federal tax return for 2014 yet, but I hadn't even been on the tax preparation website," she said.
She called the IRS, which confirmed the bad news: a federal return was filed in her name with her social security number.
To make matters worse, she's a former Anthem customer as well, which is why she asked Fox CT to conceal what's left of her identity.
"Very frustrating, I never imagined that anything like this would happen," she said.
But it did happen, and she's not alone when it comes to fraudulent tax return victimization.
Minnesota, a handful of other states and TurboTax's parent company, "Intuit," all detected an increase in suspicious filing activity last week and shut down e-filing's state taxes section last Thursday before resuming the service the next day.
As a result of the fraud, the company implemented more targeted security measures to combat this type of issue, but it now appears there's at least one case of fraud here at home.
"Apparently it's happening in Connecticut and with federal returns."
A TurboTax spokeswoman told Fox CT :
Last week there was a rise in tax fraud in a handful of states. We don't have specific data. (The New London woman can) speak with specially trained identity protection agents who will provide comprehensive support and filing assistance. In addition, Intuit will provide her with identity protection services and free credit monitoring, as well as provide access to all versions of our software or will offer the assistance of one of Intuit’s credentialed tax experts who will prepare her taxes at no expense.
Perhaps the New London situation is an isolated case.
Regardless of who is to blame, the victim now faces years of uncertainty and still has to send in a real tax return.
"It could be TurboTax. It could be Anthem and TurboTax is just an innocent victim like some of the rest of us. It could be both."
The IRS advised her to now file a paper tax return and to file a police report.