Now, Internet scammers are after your tax refund. Sun Coast taxpayers are being cautioned that scammers who somehow acquire their Social Security Numbers are filing fraudulent tax returns in their names — and keeping the refunds. It’s a trend that’s grown significantly. The I-R-S says it knows about 49-thousand tax refund scams on 2010 returns; so far, it’s targeted over a quarter-million scams on 2011 returns. The I-R-S says scammer primarily gets SOcial Security numbers from large employers who have big databases containing personal information.
