Criminal Identity Theft Investigations Increase 66% at IRS (Bloomberg) The Internal Revenue Service started 1,492 criminal investigations into the use of tax returns to commit identity theft in the year that ended Sept. 30, a 66 percent increase, the agency said Tuesday. The data release comes less than a month before the start of the…

Former retirement services company worker gets 6 years in ID theft, tax fraud case FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — A former worker at the TIAA-CREF retirement services company has been sentenced to six years in federal prison in an identity theft and tax fraud scheme. The sentence was imposed Monday by a Fort Lauderdale federal judge…

Florida men accused of hitting Cabela’s for $8,000 in items in South Dakota MITCHELL, S.D. — Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to steal more than $8,000 worth of merchandise Tuesday from Cabela’s in Mitchell. Yamel Rivera, 26, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., and Yuseff Antonia Elias, 28, of Miami, Fla., are each charged…

Florida Sheriff Targets Dozens in $2.8M Welfare Fraud Scheme A $2.8 million fraud by Florida welfare recipients was busted in a two-year sting by authorities that is expected to bring more than 60 arrests, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday. “We aren’t going to bark a lot, but we are going to…

Former Olympian, UConn Student Charged With Identity Theft STORRS — A former Olympic swimmer and University of Connecticut student who allegedly made more than $12,000 in online purchases with someone else’s credit cards was charged Wednesday with identity theft, according to university police. Diguan Denzel Pigot, 19, turned himself in after learning there was an…

Child abuse, neglect records found dumped in alley PHOENIX (AP) — Thousands of pages of confidential state documents on children and parents involved in abuse and neglect cases have been found dumped in a Phoenix alley, and state officials say they’re investigating how that happened. KSAZ-TV (http://bit.ly/1ggMGP5) reports that a resident gave the station a…

Florida man gets three years in tax fraud scheme at sentencing in St. Louis ST. LOUIS • A Florida man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for his role in a tax fraud scheme that employed stolen identities, including identities stolen from the recently dead. Dwayne Denard Johnson, 34, pleaded guilty in federal…

Identity theft on the rise in Florida, Gainesville no exception Brittnie Baker binge-watched “Orange Is The New Black” on Netflix in two days. She has run a half marathon, traveled to 13 countries and knows almost every word to “Legally Blonde.” But she’s not one-of-a-kind. Capital One, for example, recently had two different profiles for…

Holiday Season Brings Identity Theft With just a few days until the “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” shopping landmarks… many North Central Florida residents are making their lists and checking them twice. But at the top of the list… are concerns about credit card fraud. As “Cyber Monday” grows in popularity– so do the odds…

Police documents found at Fresno chop shop FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — It’s certainly not your “average” find. Fresno Police are worried about the confidential documents they discovered in the wrong hands. Those documents are considered “law enforcement sensitive.” Detectives are trying to figure out how and why they were found at a chop shop in…