EL PASO, Texas -- Tax season is a prime time for identity thieves. The IRS claims there are $20 billion per year in losses thanks to those targeting Social Security numbers and other information on your tax returns.

"I started looking into how I can make my own taxes and the option was to do it online. It has been a lot convenient and faster and easier for me," said Elena Madrid from Socorro.

She has been filing her tax return online for years. But she knows there's a possibility of getting her private information stolen.

"All the identity thieves know we just complied in one format all the information they need," said Todd Davis, the president of LifeLock, a company that can protect people's private data.

Davis said tax season is like Christmas season for identity thieves. He said if you have a file sharing program, an identity thief can search your hard drive and obtain your information.

"They actually go out and file a fake tax return posing as you with a made-up W-2 form that gets them a higher refund that you would be eligible form, they get it get the money wired in and gone before you file your real tax return," said Davis.

Then the problem continues when you file the valid return and the IRS rejects it because they already got a return on file. Madrid said that's the reason why she takes extra precaution.

"I'm very careful in the sites that I access, for example, like Limewire. I've heard that there's a potential of getting viruses just because you share other people's system of their music," said Madrid.