Method and system for identifying potential fraud activity in a tax return preparation system, at least partially based on data entry characteristics of tax return content

Abstract

Stolen identity refund fraud is one of a number of types of Internet-centric crime (i.e., cybercrime) that includes the unauthorized use of a person's or business' identity information to file a tax return in order to illegally obtain a tax refund from, for example, a state or federal revenue service. Because fraudsters use legitimate identity information to create user accounts in tax return preparation systems, it can be difficult to detect stolen identity refund fraud activity. Methods and systems of the present disclosure identify and address potential fraud activity. The methods and systems analyze data entry characteristics of tax return content that is provided to a tax return preparation system to identify potential fraud activity and perform one or more risk reduction actions in response to identifying the potential fraud activity.