WASHINGTON, D.C. (KRON) — The IRS says personal information for up to 100,000 taxpayers may have been compromised.
Identity thieves hacked an online data tool to fill out false student loan applications.
According to the report, 8,000 fraudulent returns were filed, processed, and issued before the IRS caught on.
IRS commissioner John Koskinen told the Senate Finance Committee that he warned the Department of Education about the problem.””
“I told them as soon as there was any indication of criminal activity, we would have to take that application down. And that occurred as we monitored through into the early part of February. Middle of February, it became clear that there was a pattern of activity that I won’t go into detail we briefed you on. That was clearly not consistent with people going on to actually apply for student loans.”
The data retrieval tool was disabled in early March as a security precaution.
It is expected to be available again to students in October for filing the 2018-19 academic year.