ASHEVILLE, NC ‚” After halting state electronic tax return filings, the country’s most popular do-it-yourself tax return software TurboTax resumed filing state returns at about 6 p.m. Eastern time Friday, with increased anti-fraud measures.

Thursday numerous state agencies saw an increase in fraudulent tax filings.

According to the Associated Press, most victims found a fraudulent tax return was submitted in their name when they received a rejection notice after filing their returns, said Intuit spokeswoman Julie Miller.

Intuit is the parent company of Turbo Tax.

There haven’t been issues with federal returns to date because the Internal Revenue Service has implemented stronger fraud detection policies, Miller said.

Intuit is working with security company Palantir to investigate the problem.

So far, there has been no security breach of Intuit’s systems, the company said. Instead, it believes personal information was stolen elsewhere and used to file returns on TurboTax.

“I was going to file it tonight actually,” said Candace Wells who was coming out of a Staples office store on Merrimon that sells Turbo Tax software.

“I’m very frustrated because when you do something like that for taxes on-line you feel like there is protection there.”

“I used turbo tax for years,” said Sandi Bryant, a pharmacist and pharmacy owner in Fairview. She remembers why. “The ease of use, just inputting your numbers in,” said Bryant. But three years ago she switched to a cpa who found her bigger savings. After hearing the news of fraud problems, and knowing she no longer uses Turbo Tax, Bryant said the following. “I am very relieved, said Bryant. “We deal a lot with protecting healthcare information and that should be better protected from a company as big as Turbo Tax.”

Trevor Johnson, a spokesman for North Carolina’s Department of Revenue Told News Thirteen “North Carolina has not seen an uptick in fraudulent returns submitted to our agency. All returns submitted to NCDOR pass through specific criteria which identifies potential fraudulent activity. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

Johnson said the office was not commenting whether there were any Turbo Tax cases involved in fraudulent returns flagged by the North Carolina department.

“We’re talking about social security numbers, private financial information, account numbers and so on,” said accountant Perry James, referencing the Turbo Tax cases.

James said he uses three layers of on-line security to prevent any electronic breach of his client’s tax records or personal information.

The cases involving Turbo Tax involve identity thieves who obtained victim’s identification and other data illegally.

Reports indicate the thieves then filed fraudulent returns through Turbo Tax.

Minnesota and the District of Columbia have decided not to accept any e-filings of tax returns made through Turbo Tax.

Photo Courtesy: Steve Buissinne/Pixabay/MGN

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