UPDATE: Fraudulent IRS Tax Filings

iStock_000008528169XSmallRecently the AMS along with several other state medical societies alerted physicians to a Social Security number breach resulting in fraudulent 2013 IRS tax filings. Physicians and a handful of other medical professionals appear to be the target of this scam. AMS has received over 35 calls from Arkansas physicians who were affected. The U.S. Secret Service is working with state medical societies to investigate and prosecute the person or persons responsible for this crime. At their request, AMS has provided basic demographic information to them to further the investigative efforts.

As a precaution, the U.S. Secret Service has recommended that ALL PHYSICIANS and PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS to go to www.experian.com/fraud and place themselves on a 90-day credit fraud alert.  This could potentially slow or halt further attempted identity theft activities.  This is only suggested out of an abundance of caution – at this time we have no reason to believe that every physician or PA is at risk.   We understand that Experian will feed this information and fraud alert to the other two major credit reporting agencies. If you remain concerned, it was suggested that you go back onto www.experian.com/fraud after 89 days to initiate subsequent 90-day credit fraud alerts.

Please contact Billie Jean Davenport at 501-224-8967, or by email, if you become aware of any activity that is unusual or have encountered problems with filing 2013 tax returns electronically.