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11/19/2018

IRS Identity Theft Criminal Prosecutions Plummet By More Than Half In A Year

Forbes

IRS criminal prosecutions for identity theft have plummeted by more than a half in a year.

Prosecutions dropped to 217 in Fiscal 2018 from 484 the year before and from 649 two years ago , according to a new IRS report released today.

“We have made a conscious effort to reduce our investigative time on identity theft,” IRS Criminal Investigations Deputy Chief Eric Hylton said in the study.

Hylton said his unit has reduced ID theft to 10 percent of its investigative time from a high-water mark of 18 percent. He added the 8 percent has gone over to traditional tax work.

Looking at the way ID thieves operate, the report said: “In just a couple of years, we have seen identity theft morph from an unsophisticated street level crime to sophisticated international organized crime operations."

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