Scammers have filed fraudulent tax returns using the names and Social Security numbers of at least 30 Maine doctors, apparently perpetuating a scheme that victimized nearly 100 physicians last year, according to the Maine Medical Association.
Many physicians learned of the identity theft upon attempting to file their taxes, only to receive a message from the Internal Revenue Service that returns had already been filed in their names, the doctors’ group said. The scammers appear to be chasing thousands of dollars in tax refund checks.
While the government holds victims of fraudulent returns harmless, doctors are frustrated by the hassle and worried about future complications from identity theft, said Gordon Smith, a spokesman for the Maine Medical Association.
“It’s really disconcerting for these doctors, when is the next shoe going to fall?” he said. “Now somebody has got their Social Security number and their address, their name, probably their date of birth.”
The fraudulent filings are believed to be part of a nationwide scam targeting health professionals, according to the Maine Medical Association. Medical societies in many other states, including New Hampshire, have received similar reports and shared the information with federal authorities, Smith said. No arrests have been made, to the association’s knowledge, he said.
Both the FBI and the IRS declined to comment Tuesday, saying their agencies don’t discuss ongoing investigations.
Smith has reached out to doctors about the fraudulent filings, in hopes of nailing down the number of physicians affected and informing doctors about precautionary steps, such as monitoring their credit reports.
“I don’t think I’m capturing probably half of them,” he said.
Among the reports he’s received so far, no pattern has emerged, Smith said. The targeted doctors work in a range of specialities across the state, some for hospital systems and others in private practice, he said. At least one affected physician was retired.
Some physicians questioned whether their data was accessed as part of a massive data breach in February at the health insurer Anthem, Smith said.
“I don’t think so, we had the same problem last year before the Anthem breach,” he said.
During the investigation that began last year, Smith said he learned that months or years may pass between the time personal data is stolen to when it’s sold and used by criminals.
“This is not some eighth-grader in Ethiopia,” Smith said. “This is probably organized crime in Southeast Asia, Russia or in this country.”
Doctors are hardly the only tax filers at risk. Maine Revenue Services expects the number of fraudulent income tax returns using stolen identities to double to 2,500 this year, the Sun Journal reported. While that represents a small percentage of total returns, the bogus filings are expected to amount to up to $4 million, the newspaper reported.
In years past, fraudsters filed false returns using phony names or Social Security numbers. But today’s more sophisticated scammers are using real but stolen identities. Tax authorities struggle to immediately recognize fraud based on legitimate names and other personal information, experts say.
The Maine Medical Association has advised members concerned about the scam to register for credit monitoring services. The association said it has no reason to believe all physicians are at risk.
