IONIA COUNTY, Mich. -- Cindy Stanley said she's electronically filed her tax return with Turbo Tax for the past three years.
This year, her account got hacked. She learned the hackers used her tax information from a previous year, and changed the bank location (where to send the refund).
After speaking with Turbo Tax, Stanley learned the hackers fraudulent return netted a $7,000 refund. She said she depends on the state income tax refund to pay her winter property tax bill. Now the farmer is selling sheep and cattle (for less) to pay the bill.
Stanley reached out to the FOX 17 Problem Solvers hoping to warn others. She's also hoping the IRS can catch who's behind the hacking.
Watch the video for more and how Turbo Tax is responding to the reported hacks.
The Better Business Bureau said the following:
"The Better Business Bureau is recommending that you change your login information right away if you use online tax preparation software. You should also verify that no one has already filed a tax return claiming to be you! A number of state governments have detected patterns of fraud on returns done using online software. Apparently, criminals are buying stolen personal information to gain access to past returns that are stored on the tax preparation software. They then use that information from a real return to create a false one. This makes it difficult to detect. They then have the tax refund deposited to a prepaid card, making it hard to track down later. Security expert Brian Krebs says he has found log-in credentials for TurboTax, H&R Block and similar services being sold on the dark web. Krebs says user names and passwords for accounts at these services are obtained via password-stealing malware that infects PCs."
