Brian Wynne, CPA

The IRS announced on Tuesday that identity thieves were able to access tax transcript information of more than 100,000 tax accounts through their “Get Transcript” application. Prior knowledge of personal information allowed the criminals to pass a multi-step authentication process to access the tax transcripts. The IRS believes approximately 200,000 attempts to access transcript information were made in total from “questionable e-mail domains” starting in February and ending in mid-May, with more than 100,000 gaining access.
The IRS has temporarily disabled the “Get Transcript” application. They also plan to contact via mail those 200,000 taxpayers whose accounts the criminals had attempted access. For those 100,000 accounts that were successfully accessed, the IRS will be offering free credit monitoring. The letters to those affected are set to be mailed later this week.
You can read the full IRS statement here.