200-plus University of Iowa employees report tax fraud

More than 200 University of Iowa employees this spring reportedly have become victims of tax fraud. But officials say they have no reason to believe the cases are the result of a UI data breach.

Human resources and information technology experts are trying to determine what the targeted employees might have in common in hopes of identifying the source of the fraud.

Last year, for example, several UI employees targeted in tax scams attended the same conference, according to a UI crime alert distributed to campus released Tuesday.

'We take this issue extremely seriously and are working with these employees to contact the proper authorities and provide assistance,” according to the campus notification.

As of Tuesday, 89 UI employees had reported federal tax fraud - just more than .2 percent of the 35,609 W2 forms issued by the UI for last year, according to the notification. About 120 had reported state tax fraud.

Tax fraud has been widespread this season, according to media reports. The Fiscal Times this month reported hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans will become victims of the unprecedented surge in online tax fraud, much of which is linked to an attack on TurboTax, the country's largest online filing service.

The UI warning on Tuesday stressed the issue is not isolated to Iowa.

'The number of fraudulent tax returns is on the rise nationally, as criminals use stolen names and Social Security numbers to forge W2 information on electronic filed tax returns,” according to the notice. 'Most people do not realize there is a problem until they file their tax return and discover that a criminal beat them to it.”

UI officials, however, said it can be challenging to trace the source of the fraud, which might have occurred during recent well-publicized security incidents. Multiple national corporations became the victim of data breaches in 2014, including Target, Sony Corp., and Home Depot.

The federal tax fraud rate most commonly is reported between 1 and 2 percent, according to the UI warning. States are reporting increases of 50 to 3,700 percent in fraudulent tax returns this year, UI officials said.

'Although the current numbers of impacted UI employees are lower than state and national averages, we expect that more reports will surface before the tax season is over,” officials told the UI community.

During the 2014 tax season, 270 University of Northern Iowa employees became tax fraud victims after a possible information breach at the institution. More than 1,600 employees took advantage of free credit monitoring, and state and federal authorities launched an investigation that is ongoing.

The university to date has spent $126,261 responding to the potential breach, but officials said so far UNI has not received similar reports this year.

Iowa State University on Tuesday also reported no tax fraud reports from employees.

UI officials are advising anyone on campus who believes a fraudulent tax return was filed in his or her name to contact the director of UI payroll operations and take the following steps recommended by the Federal Trade Commission.

File

a report with the local authorities.

Report

fraud to the Internal Revenue Service at 1-800-908-4490.

Create

an identity theft report by filing a claim with the Federal Trade Commission and a report with police.

Send a copy of the report or an IRS theft affidavit form to the IRS at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf.

Update

files.

Record

dates you made calls or sent letters.

Keep

copies of letters in your files.

Put a fraud alert on your credit reports at http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0275-place-fraud-alert

Order

and monitor your credit report.

The Federal Trade Commission offers an identity theft action document at http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0009-taking-charge.pdf