Bill Nelson: “there is a tax scam that is going on in this country for which you certainly have to give some creativity to these…”

“there is a tax scam that is going on in this country for which you certainly have to give some creativity to these thieves and robbers--and that is exactly what they are. I first started to get wind of this when people in the Tampa Bay region of my State called in saying an interesting thing happened. They had sent in their income tax return, and they got back a notice from the IRS that their return had already been filed. What they found out was that somebody had stolen their Social Security number, had in their name filled out a tax return, and then, guess what. It showed they had a tax refund due. When I started hearing from about 25 or 30 people, I knew there was something going on. Sure enough, law enforcement in the Tampa Bay region--the sheriff's office, the city police, combined with the State attorney and the U.S. Attorney--a couple of weeks ago had a bust and arrested 49 people who were in a scam whereby they procure people's Social Security numbers. What is unbelievable is the amount of money they were getting back, estimated at being, just in the Tampa Bay region, something like $100 million in refunds. That is a rip-off of the American taxpayer because that is their money. But the story doesn't stop there. Oh, if you were one of the victims whose Social Security number had been stolen and you wanted to file your tax return, the IRS is telling you you can't do it because you have already filed a tax return.…”