Fraud can go undetected when small amounts of money are taken over time. An article published by the Capital Gazette tells the story of one woman who ran a small scale tax fraud scam and stole more than $12,000 in Maryland state tax refunds. (She probably thought that the government wouldn’t bother with her scam because it was a drop-in-the-bucket compared to other large-scale tax refund fraud schemes.)
The woman in this case carried out her scam by filing state tax returns through an online tax preparation service. She stole $12,527.83 by submitting five false returns over two tax seasons for herself and three others. The fraudster received one check and the rest of the refunds were deposited directly into multiple bank accounts that she held.
The fraudster pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to five years with all but six months of the term suspended. The 32-year-old was also ordered to pay more than $4,000 in restitution.
Most fraudsters fail to consider the ramifications of their illegal actions. The woman in this case probably thought that government investigators would be too busy chasing down other bad guys to pay attention to the few bogus returns she submitted. (When there is a little fraud here and a little fraud there, drops-in-the-bucket can add up to an ocean of fraud.)This case demonstrates that the government is never too busy to halt illegal activities that steal funds from honest taxpayers.
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