After catching heat for giving stimulus payments to thousands of dead people, the Internal Revenue Service is back in the frying pan. This time, it's for sending checks to foreign workers, many of whom don't even live in the U.S.
While the exact number of $1,200 checks that were mailed out to foreigners isn't known, Donna Kepley, president of the tax company Arctic International, says it's likely in the "thousands." She says most of the erroneous receivers were foreign college students who worked part-time or summer jobs in the U.S.
A number of foreign students -- fearing they'll be denied a visa to return to the U.S. if they spend the money -- have attempted to contact the IRS to straighten things out, Kepley says. However, they've made little headway. One student, a French citizen now living in Zurich, says, "I never tried to commit fraud or anything. I contacted the IRS to tell them that I’m not in the U.S. anymore and that I should not have received this stimulus check and I wanted to find a way to give the money back." After three attempts, he's yet to hear back from the agency, he says.