Massive identity theft with help from the IRS reported
From Forbes.com
Someone has hijacked the tax identity of more than 2,300 tiny or defunct nonprofits, apparently taking advantage of a hole in a new electronic Internal Revenue Service filing system to list the same person as a charitable official at the same mail box drop in Las Vegas.
The charities, most of which seem to be religious in nature, all identify a “principal officer” as one William Alexander of Non Profit Accounting Services, with a stated location at a mail-box office address on N. Rainbow Blvd. in Las Vegas. Efforts to identify and locate the specific William Alexander involved were unsuccessful. The few people with that name found in Las Vegas in online phone directories had disconnected numbers or didn’t answer. Non Profit Accounting Services is not listed in those telephone directories, nor does it appear to have a corporate, partnership or fictitious name registration in the area.
Yet a would-be charitable donor consulting one of the official IRS databases would find all listed as valid and most with the ability to offer tax deductibility for contributions. It doesn’t take a lot of thought to imagine the mischief or even fraud that could be caused by use of this official agency imprimatur in what looks like a massive case of identity theft. Moreover, for many of these nonprofits, the “relocation” to Las Vegas and installation of William Alexander has spread to private database services that automatically use IRS data, such as Melissa Data and Guidestar.
