The IRS and other tax authorities cracked down on tax-related identity theft after a surge in suspicious tax returns in 2015. “Just a few years ago identity theft exploded and threatened to overwhelm the nation’s tax system,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said.

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Criminals stealing tax data from the IRS and tax preparation websites accessed sensitive information in recent years that made it easier for them to file sham returns. Using details from previous returns — such as a person’s income, address and Social Security number — they were able to file fraudulent returns that closely mimicked legitimate returns. Some state tax agencies that noticed the spike in fraud temporarily stopped accepting tax returns.

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“Our fraud filters went into overtime,” said Julie Magee, commissioner of revenue for Alabama.

The surge in fraud led to a sweep of changes from tax software providers, the IRS and state tax agencies. During the most recent tax-filing season, the IRS and state tax agencies coordinated with tax preparers and tax software providers to share more information about potentially fraudulent returns.

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Tax software providers also made changes. For example, Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, widely rolled out multi-factor authentication and added more alerts to let customers know when their account has been accessed or key information has been changed.

The IRS said the changes have led to a drop in the number of fraudulent returns. The IRS stopped 787,000 fraudulent tax returns through September of this year, amounting to about $4 billion in potentially fraudulent tax refunds. That is down from the 1.2 million scam returns detected during the same period in 2015, which added up to $7 billion in attempted refunds.

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Tax authorities and industry officials will be making more changes to fight fraud during the next tax-filing season. For instance, tax refunds for people claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit, a lucrative tax break for low-income families that is a major target of fraudsters, won’t be paid out before Feb. 15. That delay is meant to give the IRS more time to spot fraud. (Though the agency says taxpayers should still file their returns as early as possible.)