Guest Commentary

legal action. If you receive a call like this, hang up

Don’t respond to text messages, emails or social media posts claiming to be the IRS They may contain malware that could compromise your personal information

Don’t click links or open attachments in unsolicited emails or text messages about your tax return These messages are fraudulent ∫ Protect your personal and financial information Never provide this information in response to unsolicited text messages, emails or social media posts claiming to be the IRS vincing them their mortgages and other debts entitled them to tax refunds

∫ Erotida Natasha Harden Ortiz and Aida Cortes, both of Orlando, were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and aiding in fraudulent and false statements related to IRS returns Their sentencing hearings were scheduled for this month Ortiz and Cortes orchestrated a scheme to file taxes for u n s u s p e c t i n g t a x p a y e r s w i t h f r a u d u l e n t fall victim to tax preparers’

The following are some fraudulent tax preparation cases the IRS-CI Tampa Field Office worked: ∫ Marcos Antonio Tejada, of Kissimmee, was sentenced to 18 months for tax fraud for preparing false tax returns for himself and others He prepared two versions of the same tax return, one he claimed was accurate and one he knew was false ∫ Iran V. Backstrom, aka Shariyf Noble, was sentenced to 105 months in prison and Mehef Bey, aka Arthur Daniels, was sentenced to 11 years in prison Their scheme involved recruiting clients and preparing false tax returns on the clients’ behalf by con-