e-Filing Tax Nightmare

I prepare tax filings for a select few in my inner, INNER social circle (free of charge).  If I prepare your taxes for you that means I think highly of you.... if I decline or stop doing them it is because you have pissed me off.  You probably took advantage of my innate nature of being helpful and generous. 

Anyway... I love technology.  I loathe technology.  Today I had an instance of preparing a return and submitting it via TurboTax federal e-filing service only to have it rejected.  Why was it rejected?  Because the primary SSN on the return I was submitting had already been used as a SPOUSE on another tax return that had already been processed and accepted by the IRS.  The person's return I was preparing has not moved, changed jobs, or marital status in at least 20 years. 

Tax fraud.  Identity theft.  In my lap.  Great.  Now what?

After a dizzying array of general no-help from any government entity or TurboTax themselves, I stumbled upon website with steps to rectify the situation.  Believe it or not, it was an actual IRS website that I had to dig for.

I followed the checklist immaculately.  After obtaining the person's passport, drivers license, and original SSN card I was able to snail mail the tax forms in.  Now it's a wait-and-see.  Now it's filing an affidavit with the FTC, notifying credit reporting agencies, seeing if any claim has been made to social security benefits, etc.  What a major pain in the you-know-what. 

It's the dark side of technology.  I hate to see it come to a point of finger-printing everything and inserting chips in our necks, but the way things are going what choices do we have?  It's the only sure way to positively identify somebody.