3 Dayton women face charges of ID theft and tax fraud

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Three Dayton women are facing charges of tax fraud and identity theft and IRS investigators want to make sure you don't fall victim to similar schemes.

A federal grand jury charged the women with conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by using stolen identities belonging to mentally disabled adults in order to obtain fraudulent income tax refunds.

Karen T. Taylor, 50, Laquanna R. Bradshaw, 30, and Tiffany L. Cole, 26 were named in the indictment.

According to federal investigators, Taylor stole personal information from a company while working as an office cleaner for another company. Officials believe Taylor then gave that information to Bradshaw and Cole who used it to file the false returns.

"The IRS is aggressively pursuing those who steal others' identities in order to file false returns," said Steven Miller, IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement. "Our cooperative work with the U.S. Attorney's Office will help protect taxpayers in southern Ohio from being victimized by identity theft. The IRS is taking additional steps this tax season to further prevent, detect and resolve identity theft cases as soon as possible."

IRS officials say you should be careful about giving out your personal information, especially in emails that claim to be from the IRS. They tell 2 News many times you don't find out about the theft until you go to file your real return and it's rejected.

Taylor and Bradshaw were arrested on January 25, 2012 and were released on bond. Cole is currently in jail on unrelated forgery charges.