Months after stolen tax refund, IRS has yet to return money

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - It is tax season and the IRS will soon find out if new security measures put in place will detect hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent tax returns before the checks go out.

Still, some victims continue to wait for last year's refund.

Local law enforcement estimates thieves filed hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent tax returns in recent years. One of those criminals filed a return on behalf of Benita Petrillo

The Petrillos found out someone beat them to the IRS after they filed their taxes last April.

Other bay area residents got the same gut-wrenching news in 2011. Some have since recovered their refunds, but not the Petrillos.

Nine months ago the couple says they filed an ID theft report and re-sent return as the IRS instructed.

I asked Benita Petrillo to call the IRS during our interview last week.  The Palm Harbor retiree discovered the Internal Revenue Service had no update and had yet to assign her case to a specialist, which is when I called the IRS.  Now a specialist has been assigned to her case. "I hope they will resolve this and will pay our 2300 due us," said Benita.

While the IRS refuses to discuss the Petrillos’ particular case they did issue a statement:  "The IRS has taken numerous steps to combat identity theft and protect tax payers."