As most folks start preparing to file their income tax returns, the IRS and the Justice Department began unveiling their annual reminders of what happens to those who don’t. 
 
 The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that federal authorities in an extensive sweep across 23 states last week charged 105 people of fraud and identity theft in connection with filing false returns to try to obtain refunds. 
 
 “ID theft is a growing problem all across the country, and we’ve come to find out that the tax system isn’t immune,” said IRS spokeswoman Anabel Marquez. “They’ve figured out that just like they can steal credit card numbers, they can file false refunds.” 
 
 Altogether, last week’s sweep resulted in 939 criminal charges lodged in 69 grand jury indictments and criminal complaints filed by prosecutors. 
 
 In that sweep, authorities arrested three Southern California residents – Thomas Marshall, 36, of Lancaster; Michael Williams, 41, formerly of Littlerock in the Antelope Valley; and Mike Niko, 33, of Carson – on suspicion of identity theft and tax fraud. All three pleaded not guilty and were released on a $50,000 appearance bond, according Linda Lowery of the IRS' criminal investigation unit in Los Angeles. 
 
 Also named in the indictment were Veronica Niko, 35, of Lancaster, who was not arrested but has been summoned to appear in court next week, and Mao Niko, 39, formerly of Gardena, who remains at large, Lowery said. She said it was unclear if the Nikos are related. 
 
 Also last week, IRS enforcement agents checked 150 money services businesses in nine high-risk metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, to see if they knowingly or unknowingly facilitated identity theft or refund fraud. The IRS has more than 250 check-cashing operations under audit across the country. 
 
 The agency also is devising new identity theft screening filters to help agents spot fraudulent returns before they are processed and a refund issued. 
 
 Marquez said the IRS identified about 260,000 fraudulent returns last year. 
 
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 (Reuters) - A U.S. government crackdown on suspected identity thieves filing false tax returns stopped $1.4 billion in bad refunds from being sent out in 2011, the Internal Revenue Service said on Tuesday. 
 
 The IRS and Justice Department stopped 260,000 bad returns last year, IRS Deputy Commissioner Steve Miller said. 
 
 "There is no doubt in the last couple of years this rate of fraud has gone up," Miller told reporters. 
 
 In 2010, there were fewer than 50,000 such returns, involving $262 million. 
 
 A national sweep by the two agencies over the last week targeted 105 people in 23 states and led to 939 criminal charges in 69 indictments related to identity theft. Some of the investigations stretched back years. 
 
 Arrests were made Friday in Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey and New York, where three employees of JPMorgan Chase Bank were charged by the Manhattan U.S. attorney with taking kickbacks in a $4.8 million tax refund scam that used the identities of Puerto Rican citizens. 
 
 Law enforcement agencies said other schemes involved stealing the identities of dead taxpayers and mentally disabled people. 
 
 The IRS also went to numerous check-cashing operations across the country to ensure that they were not involved with refund fraud and identify theft. 
 
 (Reporting By Nanette Byrnes; editing by Mark Porter)
– The Internal Revenue Service is cracking down on fraudsters as tax return seasons begins. The agency has stepped up efforts to prevent identity theft, and caught 260,000 bad returns last year, up from 50,000 in 2010, and prevented a total of $1.4 billion in bad refunds being sent out, Reuters reports. New screening measures have been put in place and hundreds of check-cashing operations are being audited. "ID theft is a growing problem all across the country, and we’ve come to find out that the tax system isn’t immune,” an IRS spokeswoman tells the Los Angeles Times. “They’ve figured out that just like they can steal credit card numbers, they can file false refunds." Some 105 people were arrested last week in a nationwide sweep by the IRS and Justice Department, including three JPMorgan Chase bankers who took kickbacks from a tax scam involving the stolen identities of Puerto Ricans, officials said.