MIAMI – Some 700,000 taxpayers were victims of identity fraud, after hackers hit The Internal Revenue Service's "Get Transcript" system, the tax agency said Friday.
The "Get Transcript" program was set up to make it convenient for taxpayers to get tax returns. Hackers were using stolen sensitive information to access the IRS accounts in hopes of cashing in on fake tax returns.
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The "Get Transcript" system launched January 2014 and was disabled in May of last year when they announced 114,000 accounts were hacked. In August, authorities said the number of accounts hacked went up to 334,000. And on Friday, the number of victims went up to 724,000.
The Treasury Inspector General was investigating suspicious activity and tax payers whose accounts were hacked will be notified. Those whose accounts were the subjects of failed attempts will also be notified.
The IRS was set to start mailing notices Feb. 29th. Victims were asked to file Form 14039 to request an Identity Protect PIN.