More Florida, More Fraud

Wasn't there an old saying, "Only in California"?

It seems that that scornful phrase might have to pack up and move to the Sunshine State before too long...

Inmate Says Prisoners Filing Fake Tax Returns

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Floridians paid an average of $11,000 in federal income taxes last year. If you're lucky and you were one of those who got a refund, it averaged about $1,800.

A WESH NewsChannel 2 investigation has uncovered that some people who didn't work at all and paid no tax still expected an average refund of nearly $5,000 a piece.

About 160 million tax returns were filed with the IRS last year alone, and if you have enough deductions, then you get a tax refund. But what if you cheat?

That's why Kathy became suspicious when she found 10 tax returns stuffed in two large packets waiting in her mail. (Note: To protect her identity, we are not using her last name). Kathy received the packets unexpectedly. They had been mailed to her from a Florida prison inmate.

"I was petrified. I'm petrified," she said.

That's why she came to us. The 10 returns were remarkable in their similarity. Each claimed between $28,000 and $48,000 in income, and each one asked for a tax refund of between $4,300 and $5,100.

"There's no doubt in your mind that this was a scam?" NewsChannel 2 investigative reporter Stephen Stock asked her.

"If you look at (them)... you will see the amounts are within dollars and cents," she said.

So NewsChannel 2 started investigating. We looked up every one of the businesses listed on the tax forms. We went to every employer address listed. Most of them are in South Florida.

One address took us to an empty lot. Other addresses didn't even exist. We tried to locate and contact every one of the employers. We discovered the business either didn't exist or had existed at one time but had closed.

Not only are the businesses all phony, but at the time these tax filers claimed to be working, they were all in prison.

"It's been going on for years," one inmate told NewsChannel 2. We chose to hide the inmate's identity because of fears he would be killed for blowing the whistle on a scam.