What to Do If Someone Files a Fraudulent Tax Return in Your Name

Here's a message you really don't want to receive from the Internal Revenue Service: Someone has already received your tax refund. More than 237,500 taxpayers filed affidavits with the IRS in the first nine months of 2016 reporting that they had been victims of identity theft, according to the agency, although that number was down 50 percent from 2015. Scammers can steal taxpayers' identity in a variety of ways, from data breaches at retail stores, medical facilities and the IRS itself to theft of paper mail.