Did Turbo Tax send My Refund to a Nigerian Prince?

[fortytwo]

My Tax Refund did not arrive at the bank. Back tracking I found the following:

 

Printed a review copy of my return on 4/11/15 at 9:42 pm. Routing and Account boxes were filled with "X's" by T tax.

 

Filed my return on 4/15/15 at 4:12 pm. Routing and Account boxes were filled with numbers by T-Tax, but not my account. I did not catch the wrong account numbers. Pdf copy was saved.

 

4/15/15 at 4:15 pm another pdf file of the return was saved when I printed the filed return. Smaller file, but the 1040 also has the same Routing and Account numbers.

 

I have an HP Envy laptop connected to the internet by a Pepwave SOHO router through Century Link. The laptop has Win7 which is updated manually and MSE software which auto updates. TTax is loaded on a partitioned drive devoted to apps. Data files are on a thumb drive that is only inserted when personal data is being accessed.

 

Checked my 2013 return and it has "X's" in the Routing and Account boxes.

 

Trying to contact T Tax folks now. They don't do E-Mail. Web comments indicate it's a call and have them call you back drill.

 

Checked all bank accounts, credit card accounts, and brokerage accounts and can't identify any outside activity.

 

Florida is the center of criminal scamming of tax refunds by those who get enough info to file a phony return and claim a refund before you can file a return. Should be a simple thing for the IRS to identify, but then it's the IRS! Law enforcement runs warning ads beginning in January. Haven't heard of the refund being hijacked as a real return was filed before this.

 

 

[wa_desert_rat]

Downright scary. I suppose you'll be out of luck if they sent it somewhere else.

 

WDR

[Biker56]

Did T tax input saved bank numbers from your last years info?

Or you thought that was what they did. That was reason you didn't check the info?

 

Or did they change the numbers you put in this year?

[fortytwo]

Biker56: T Tax has auto filled my bank info for many years. They did the 2013 fill and I got the refund. You can't really see what they fill as the boxes are all filled with "X's".

 

Update: Reached Cori at T Tax. Native English speaker. She was able to tell me that the Routing number belonged to JP Morgan-Chase Bank, but now where. I asked that she have a software engineer or software security type contact me. She promised to forward the request but the following comments were not encouraging. Long on sympathy; short on substance. The EMail that I received immediately thereafter was a less than accurate description and mostly CYA.

 

Visited a Banker at a local Chase Bank. Confirmed that the Routing number was Chase, but not in Florida. I gathered it was not on the traditional Chase Routing number list.

 

Cori said I should call the IRS and I have the number. Probably a couple of frustrating days coming up. IRS is on a deliberate "slow-down" Obama Administration tantrum in the vein of closing the White House to public tours because funding was cut somewhere. Even though everything is handled electronically they forecast, and took, 21 days to process the refund, and then added that it could take an additional 6 days for the refund to post at the bank. All my refunds in the past have been within 5-7 days - same system!

 

I'll also contact the local Sherrif's internet fraud/identify theft office tomorrow. Need someone who has permissions to penetrate the "privacy" barriers.

 

Real mystery. Apparently the auto fill was correct on April 11 as the printout has "X's" in all the boxes. MSE was on guard. I do have a file in the T Tax data folder dated April 14. When I clicked it I was taken to the "Check for Updates" box and got a message that I needed to connect to the internet (I had disconnected the laptop while checking the files - just in case). Two pdf Return Files on April 15 both have the Chase Routing number and an Account Number in the boxes - not "X's". The thumb drive with the pdf's was only installed for working on the return (only made one entry between 11 and 15th). At this point it appears I acquired an unknown trojan capable of redirecting the Routing and Account numbers or some flaw was installed by the check for T Tax updates on April 14. Cori at T Tax claims that she has never heard of another instance such as this.

 

Edit add: Sheriff's folks I talked to had never seen this type of refund theft before. Their experts from the Economic Fraud unit will contact me next week. As for Intuit, I got an EMail that they had satisfied my query and a second EMail Titled Case Closed with a survey attached. If anyone really read the survey response they'll be contacting me. I have positive evidence that T-Tax software was penetrated and data changed by some sort of malware, probably a trojan that is not recognized by MSE.