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I filed taxes for 2014 months back, got the return, and all was well. Then I got a series of tax return emails over the course of two days (in June 2015) from a different seemingly legit site (1040.com), indicating that someone has filed a return with my name and email address. The return was apparently declined by the IRS, then resubmitted and subsequently accepted by the IRS.

I do not know anything else yet about the event (such as if my SSN was used). I'm baffled why someone would use my email address unless it's a phishing attempt, yet there is no indication of phishing. Nor is there any evidence of email tampering.

If I've already filed, do I have nothing to worry about? Should I report this to the IRS even if there's no evidence of actual fraud (so far)?

Chris W. Rea
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Dan Hoyt
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2 Answers2

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Given that 1040.com does appear to be a legit tax preparation service, there is another, harmless (to you, anyway) possibility: Someone with the same name as you has filed his tax return using your email address, probably in the honest belief that it is his email address, and therefore you are getting notifications about his tax return.

This sort of thing happens all the damn time, particularly to people with relatively common names who use email services that hand out firstname.lastname@service.com addresses. My SO keeps getting email intended for someone with the same name who lives in the UK; we have learned enough about her that we could show up on her doorstep and beg her to stop -- and that probably wouldn't do any good at all.

I might try to contact the service and explain the situation -- this could be a very serious problem for the other Dan Hoyt. Unfortunately, they may not comprehend the problem.

zwol
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The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers via email. This is a scam.

The IRS doesn't initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.

Even if it seems like they aren't asking for anything yet, it's likely they will soon.

Also note that the IRS is a governmental organization, and uses a .gov TLD; it's unlikely they would use a .com.

briantist
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