Crime & Safety

IRS Investigating Hinsdale Tax Fraud Case

Attempted wire fraud and burglary to motor vehicle were also offenses recently reported by the Hinsdale Police Department.

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Tax fraud—An unknown suspect is believed to have used the personal information of a victim from the 5800 block of South Elm Street to file a fraudulent tax return, according to the .

When the victim filed their actual return, the IRS told them that a tax return in their name had already been filed from a location outside of Illinois, Deputy Chief Mark Wodka said. Hinsdale Police were alerted about the incident at 8 a.m. April 5. The IRS fraud unit is now investigating the case.

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The police department does not know details of the fraudulent return beyond the personal information used.

Wodka said such fraud cases are not new for the IRS, especially in this Internet age.

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“We know that nationwide, this is something that’s occurring with the increasing use of electronic filing,” Wodka said.

Attempted fraud—A resident from the 5600 block of South Park Avenue recognized and reported to Hinsdale Police a wire fraud scam at 2 p.m. on April 6.

The resident received two money orders in the mail from an unknown suspect and was told to deposit the money and then wire that amount to the suspect via Western Union.

The resident did not comply and did not suffer any dollar loss.

Wire fraud scams have popped up several times in recent police department releases. Wodka said he does not believe the multiple reports are due to an increase in incidents, but to an increase in resident awareness and willingness to report the scams.

“We’re having more people report these to us that previously would not report them without the increased awareness,” Wodka said.

Burglary to motor vehicle—An unknown suspect entered a victim’s vehicle and stole from it a $200 cell phone while the vehicle was parked in the victim’s driveway in the 100 block of North Bruner Street between 9:32 p.m. April 8 and 12:32 p.m. April 9.

The car was unlocked at the time of the burglary. 

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