AG urges BSU ID theft victims to call

• Report tax-related identity theft to Indiana attorney general at 1-800-382-5516.

MUNCIE – More than 30 Ball State University employees whose identities were stolen by thieves for fake tax returns have filed reports with the Muncie Police Department.

"Since Feb. 17, I have made 29 tax fraud reports for Ball State employees, and I know some also filed online on our website," said officer Dennis Belt, who is stationed at the sergeant's desk in city hall. "I don't know how many reports have been taken by other officers. Twenty nine is the number I've done personally."

Other BSU employees living outside of Muncie have filed stolen identity/refund fraud reports with the Delaware County Sheriff's Department. Meanwhile, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller on Thursday urged victims to also call his office.

Jim McDonald, whose wife is a BSU faculty member and one of the fraud victims, says he spoke to "a pretty high-placed administrator at Ball State who estimates they know of about 200 people" so far who have had false refunds filed in their names.

One of them, Dave Mathews, a senior assistant director of financial aid, says a hacker itemized $44,999 in deductions on his return. The hacker generated an income tax refund of $9,200.

"The claimed amounts are always under $10,000 to avoid banks confirming sources and identities," says Frank Groom, a BSU professor who teaches data security.

Typically, perpetrators who steal Social Security numbers and other personal information file false returns electronically, early in the tax season, so that the IRS receives the false return before the real person has time to file their return, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

That's what happened to one of the BSU victims, a senior software engineer who asked not to be identified because, "I don't want to open myself or my family up to any further attacks." That victim, who was expecting a refund, had not filed yet because he was waiting on a K-1 tax form from an investment account.

The employee now will have to file special IRS forms, including one "to get our address changed back to the real one," which can take four weeks, while "the review process for our taxes is going to take up to 180 days once we are able to file them."

The perpetrators arrange to have refunds electronically transferred to debit cards or delivered to addresses where they can steal the refunds out of the mail.

Creating an identity theft report gives you some important rights that can help you recover from the theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Filing a police report is part of that process.

The Indiana attorney general's office encourages tax identity theft victims to also file complaints with the attorney general "so we can assist the consumers and also obtain an accurate picture of where frauds have occurred — so we can determine if any are localized to a particular area or entity," spokeswoman Molly Johnson said.

The number to call is 1-800-382-5516.

While the best protection against tax ID theft is to file your taxes as early as possible to get ahead of criminals, Johnson said it is not foolproof.

In 2014, the Indiana AG's office received more than 1,300 complaints about identity theft, 353 of which were specifically stolen identity/tax refund frauds.

"If you are a victim of tax identity theft, you are at serious risk of further identity theft," Johnson said.

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.