Identity Theft Reports Fall 71 Percent in Three Years, IRS Says

The IRS and its partners in the Security Summit—the agency’s public-private partnership to combat identity tax fraud—are praising their effort’s progress, stating that reports of identity theft have fallen by 71 percent in the last three years.

Between 2015 and 2018, the number of filed identity theft affidavits fell to 199,000 reports in 2018 from 677,000 in 2015, the IRS said in an April 8 news release (IR-2019-66). During that same period, the IRS has protected a combined $24 billion in fraudulent refunds, with financial industry partnerships recovering an additional $1.4 billion.

“At a time when many in ...