TIFTON — Multiple reports of fraud have been filed in the last week in the Tifton area.

One victim was a refugee from the hurricane last October. According to the police report filed on Feb. 7, she stayed in Tifton for three days waiting out the storm and only used her debit card at three places during her stay.

She discovered that her card information had been used to make a purchase at the Tifton Walmart in January for $220.67, the report states. The victim is still in possession of the card and hasn’t noticed any other fraudulent charges.

The second victim filed a report on Feb. 8 stating that someone had filed a 2016 tax return using his personal information.

He discovered this when he tried to file his taxes and was told that a return had already been filed. According to the report, the victim stated that he didn’t get a W2 form in the mail, and that it is possible that his information may have been stolen when United Healthcare was hacked.

Either possibility would have given enough information for identity thieves to file a fraudulent income tax return form.

The case has been referred to the Internal Revenue Service.

The third victim told police on Feb. 7 that he received a call from Equifax, notifying him that an online purchase of $1862.92 was made on Feb. 3 originating at Lowe’s in Tifton.

According to the report, the same victim came back in on the same day to report additional fraudulent charges: an online purchase from Office Max for $700, date, time and location unknown; an online purchase from Finishline.com on Feb. 5 for $323.32; a purchase at Papa John’s in Tifton on Feb. 4 for $198.88.

The victim has cancelled the credit cards, the report states.

An IRS scam that is commonplace caught one victim.

She told police on Feb. 7 that she received a call from someone saying they were with the IRS who told her she owed them over $6000.

The victim was told that if she sent $2000 in money orders to the IRS they would cancel the rest of the debt, which she did, the report states. She was then later told that she would have to send more money, at which point she went to the police to report the fraud.

The scammer called back while the victim was filing the report, and the officer spoke with the caller, informing him that he would not be getting any more money.

“He was less than pleased,” stated the report.

On Feb. 9 someone tried to use a corporate credit card at Lowe’s to make a purchase of $4807.32.

The manager at Lowe’s was suspicious of the person making the purchase, and called the owner of the corporate account to verify the purchase, according to the report.

The owner of the account told the Lowe’s manager that the purchase was fraudulent, at which time employees began removing the merchandise from the would-be thief’s trailer, the report states.

The scammer threw some of the merchandise off the trailer so he could leave quickly and was last seen driving a white truck pulling a green trailer east on Highway 82, according to the report.