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Identity theft related tax fraud remains a significant problem, despite the IRS preventing an alarming $20 billion of fraudulent refunds in 2012. This is a large increase in protection of refunds, $6 billion more than in 2011.
Click to find out more about what the IRS is doing for both fraud prevention and victim assistance.
It’s a relatively easy and violence-free crime that is growing exponentially.
But did you know that before tax fraud spread to the wider public, electronic tax fraud had its roots in prisons? Read More
Con men have pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns over the Internet, using TurboTax, an online tax filing program. Read More
To minimize your chances of identity theft during tax season — and year round — the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is out with a list to deter fraud. Some of the tips include the following: Read More
Private-i recently chatted with Congressman Jim Langevin, a Democrat from Rhode Island who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since winning office in 2000. During the last decade he has taken on several leadership roles, including work as the co-founder of the bipartisan House Cybersecurity Caucus.
An original co-sponsor to the PrECISE Act, he has a lot to say about our country’s most urgent online security priorities. After all, it’s a lack of awareness about cyber-crime and hacking attacks that poses the most potential harm to our country’s infrastructure.
Indeed, Congressman Langevin notes that the PrECISE Act would create “a clearinghouse for information, easing communication about new threats from government to the private sector and establishing a system that allows business to make threats known to government and each other, while ensuring that citizens’ privacy remains a top concern.”
Read our full Q&A below to learn his thoughts on everything from how consumers can protect their identities online to keeping children safeguarded from identity theft from cyber-thieves.
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All a thief needs is a taxpayer’s name, Social Security number, and birth date, and it’s that easy to file a phony tax return. Read More
We all want to prevent tax-time identity fraud, but as it’s the no. 1 scam on the IRS Dirty Dozen list for 2012, it’s pretty clear this may take some effort.
One of the best tips is to safeguard your Social Security number. After all, in order to file a phony tax return, a thief simply needs a taxpayer’s name, Social Security number, and birth date.
What is less apparent is that your social networking pages could be helping an identity thief. Read More
The Internal Revenue Service has released its annual “dirty dozen” list of tax scams, and identity theft has earned the no. 1 spot in this year’s ranking.
Taxpayers may encounter the 12 scams at any point during the year, but most peak during filing season as people prepare their tax returns.
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IRS officials raided 150 money-services businesses to determine whether they were involved in identity theft or filing for bogus tax refunds.
The nationwide sweep targeted 105 people in 23 states. This included nine “high-risk” cities per the IRS, including Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Phoenix; Tampa; and Washington, D.C. Read More
An identity-theft scheme in New York began to unravel when victims complained of poor credit scores and trouble receiving tax refunds because they had apparently already been filed.
The two suspects were indicted for allegedly using identities stolen via Craigslist ads to file false tax returns and take out loans. Read More
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