Six people who worked in tax preparation were charged with fraud and filing false tax returns in March of 2012 . Over 1,000 false tax returns were filed between October 2009 and April 2012 . The fraudulent returns totalled more than $ 1.7 million . UPDATE ( 01/29/2013 ): Two others were linked to the conspiracy and charged . One of them was an employee of an unnamed Alabama state agency . She was able to access a state database of personal information and provide it to others in the identity theft ring . ;