Nineteen people have been arrested as part of operation "Stop the Drop.”
The Polk County Sheriff's Office says the suspects allegedly preyed on the elderly and defrauded taxpayers and the IRS to the tune of $500,000.
Here's how it worked:
Some suspects working in nursing homes would steal patients’ information from their medical files, then they'd sell it to other people who would use it to file fraudulent tax returns.
Sheriff Grady Judd says they often file them electronically so they can get refunds quicker.
"Quite frankly, they're stealing us blind,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “The IRS is sending them money and they're trying to turn this around quickly. You know turbo tax says "choose easy" and Turbo Tax is one of the ways that they're obtaining this information."
Sheriff Judd says there needs to be a better system in place for checks and balances.
He says all this resulted in nearly 400 identity thefts. The majority of those people were in nursing homes and weren't even aware of what was happening.
The suspect's face numerous charges including things like grand theft, fraud and money laundering.