<story><title>Father and Daughter Convicted for $100M Fraudulent Tax Refund Scheme</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/fort-lauderdale-father-and-daughter-convicted-trial-involvement-100-million-fraudulent</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>Tax refund fraud is big business.&lt;p&gt;These two are not very smart.  The smarter criminals steal someone’s identity, file a fraudulent tax form using their identity, steal the refund, and then let that poor soul deal with the IRS when it comes after them to get their money back.&lt;p&gt;If you ever try to file and get a notice that you already filed, jump on it right away because you may have been targeted.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nullc</author><text>And the &lt;i&gt;most&lt;/i&gt; successful tax refund scammers claim to have invented Bitcoin, claim to have spend a hundred million buying a non-existent supercomputer, then claim $54 million in tax rebates related to their &amp;quot;research and development&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;When the authorities catch on, they then pivot to pre-selling their embargoed &amp;quot;bitcoin fortune&amp;quot; in a advanced fee fraud[2] and use the victims to pay a settlement with the tax authority. Which in AU, like the US, is surprisingly forgiving of outright fraud so long as you give them money.&lt;p&gt;Best of all, because printing obviously false speculation about Bitcoin&amp;#x27;s creator sells more paper than a story about an audacious but fundamentally boring conman, even the media barely takes notice of the crime.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;Bitcoin&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;4htw3t&amp;#x2F;how_to_steal_54_millions_of_dollar_from_the&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;Bitcoin&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;4htw3t&amp;#x2F;how_to_stea...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;Bitcoin&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;4cdsna&amp;#x2F;craig_wright_nigerian_prince_and_other_unlikely&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;Bitcoin&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;4cdsna&amp;#x2F;craig_wrigh...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Father and Daughter Convicted for $100M Fraudulent Tax Refund Scheme</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/fort-lauderdale-father-and-daughter-convicted-trial-involvement-100-million-fraudulent</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>Tax refund fraud is big business.&lt;p&gt;These two are not very smart.  The smarter criminals steal someone’s identity, file a fraudulent tax form using their identity, steal the refund, and then let that poor soul deal with the IRS when it comes after them to get their money back.&lt;p&gt;If you ever try to file and get a notice that you already filed, jump on it right away because you may have been targeted.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stefan_</author><text>That would be the stupid variant. In Europe, tax refund fraud uses your real name:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;CumEx-Files&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;CumEx-Files&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>