Identity Theft: Grave Robbing for a Tax Refund
Data sold by the government and posted online are mined by thieves
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Five-year-old Benny Watters died of a brain tumor in September 2010. Ten months later, his parents tried to e-file their 2010 tax return listing him as a dependent, only to have the IRS block it based on information that made the family sick: Someone else had applied for a refund claiming him as their child. “It was almost like somebody had stolen him from us,” says his mother, Lisa Watters, of Lake Forest, Ill.
Watters went online looking for answers about how the crime could have happened. Within a few clicks she came upon Benny’s Social Security number, in a list released by the federal government. “It’s just so easy [to find], and I don’t know what purpose it serves,” Watters says.