IRS warning about Tax Scams

It is that time of the year again. You file your tax returns and wait for your refund, but it never arrives. That might be because someone stole it. CBS News Correspondent John Miller says scam artists have been working overtime. “They would buy 1,000 medical records that had names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers; a bunch of people with laptops would sit there file online tax returns.  What happens is, people end up filling their taxes and then they are told by the IRS, ‘hey you already filled and we already sent you a refund.” These scam artists operate like complex organizations, adds Miller. “We saw a number of complex organizations where you had real boiler room operations.  I put my hand in a box full of envelopes and just in that one box were $3 million in tax return checks that were not going to the people who deserve them.” The IRS says hundreds of millions of dollars were lost to scam artists last year. The IRS prevented $20 billion in fake refunds last year, alone.