In the decades that followed the enactment of the Homestead Act of 1862, more than 1.6 million U.S. citizens and intended citizens filed applications with the U.S. government to lay claim to 160 acres of land guaranteed to each applicant willing to settle, farm and improve the lands. Settlers quickly encountered a major problem. The … Continue Reading
In a recent Public Service Announcement dated February 21, 2018 entitled “Increase in W-2 Phishing Campaigns,” the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) issued another alert about an increase in phishing campaigns since the beginning of 2018. According to the FBI, “IRS’s Online Fraud Detection & Prevention (OFDP), which monitors for suspected IRS-related phishing emails, observed … Continue Reading
This writer has been lamenting for years about the fact that Medicare recipients’ Social Security numbers are included on the face of the card. This is an unnecessary risk posed to Medicare recipients, which are primarily senior citizens, some of our most vulnerable citizens, who are already preyed upon by scammers. Medicare has recognized the … Continue Reading
It’s the start of tax season, and many employers are sending W-2 forms to employees so they can get ready to file their tax returns. As was true over the past few years, this is not only the busy season for tax preparers, but also for cyber criminals seeking to reap millions from U.S. taxpayers … Continue Reading
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Connecticut has announced the creation of a Connecticut Cyber Task Force (“CCTF”) in partnership with the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, Homeland Security, IRS, Connecticut State Police, and 11 local police departments from throughout Connecticut as well as other federal authorities. The CCTF’s initial focus will be twofold: … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has concentrated on small businesses this year with the launch of www.FTC.gov/SmallBusiness , which provides data security awareness information to small businesses. The site includes articles about data security, how to develop a data security plan, what happens when ransomware affects your business, what to do in response to a … Continue Reading
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a warning alerting the public to a new email phishing scam that looks like a joint notice from the IRS and FBI about new tax laws. The phishing email uses the emblems of both agencies, and asks recipients to download an FBI questionnaire related to “changes of tax … Continue Reading
In the wake of several recent high-profile security breaches, employers are increasingly viewing identity theft protection as an essential employee benefit for employees. According to Willis Towers Watson’s 2016 voluntary benefits and services (VBS) survey, identity theft protection, offered by 35 percent of employers in 2015, could double to nearly 70 percent by 2018. Recognizing … Continue Reading
A new but old scam is on the rise and is reportedly hitting droves of unwary and vulnerable consumers. This new but old scam has increased now that tax season is over, and W2 scams are difficult to succeed this time of year. The criminals are always trying to find ways to make money, and … Continue Reading
On Thursday, Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) Commissioner John Koskinen testified that the personal data of up to a 100,000 taxpayers could have been compromised as a result of criminal use of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid Data Retrieval Tool (“DRT”). Last week, we posted that the IRS disabled the tool after it suspected … Continue Reading
Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Federal Student Aid (FSA) announced that the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) on fafsa.gov and StudentLoans.gov will be unavailable until extra security protections could be added. Since 2010, students have been able to use the DRT to transfer tax data directly into the Free Application for Federal Student … Continue Reading
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) obtained authorization from a California federal court last November to serve a John Doe summons on the virtual currency firm Coinbase in order to obtain customer information to determine whether customers were using virtual currency to avoid paying income taxes. Although the summons was issued in December, Coinbase has not … Continue Reading
Just when I thought everyone knew about the continued W2 schemes, where phishing emails are used to get company employees’ W2 forms so the thief can file a false tax return and get a refund, several additional clients have been hit with the scheme and the thieves were successful. Just like after holiday sales in … Continue Reading
Although every year we lament about the significance of data breaches in the past year, 2016 was by far the worst. Data breaches were rampant, victimizing every industry and numbing consumers in the process. It was so bad that consumers began to throw up their hands and say “My personal information is out there anyway. … Continue Reading
We have previously warned consumers about IRS phone scams that defraud consumers. Basically, the fraudsters call unsuspecting victims over the telephone impersonating an IRS official, and intimidate the recipient of the call to believe that they have an outstanding tax liability and telling them that if they don’t pay up, they will be arrested and … Continue Reading
Nakeisha Hall was sentenced in federal district court in August to serve nine years and two months in prison after she plead guilty for crimes she committed while working for the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service. Instead of advocating for taxpayers, she actually used taxpayers’ personal information to commit fraud and identity theft against them. Her … Continue Reading
We have written before about the ability of hackers to file false tax returns to get fraudulent refunds by using the IRS website, and how hundreds of thousands of Americans have become victims of tax fraud. The IRS issued a statement last week warning tax preparers to be on the alert for hackings that allow … Continue Reading
Employers are increasingly being contacted by individuals, their insurance and payroll providers, the IRS and/or police about employees who are possibly involved in identity theft. If an employee steals a name and matching social security number and has a fraudulent identity document and social security card, this can be very difficult to detect. A strong … Continue Reading
Last week, the IRS announced that the electronic filing personal identification number tool (e-file PIN), used by taxpayers to verify their signature on their tax filings, “is no longer available.” The IRS admitted in February 2016 that cyber criminals were attacking the system and had accessed more than 100,000 taxpayers PIN numbers. It did not … Continue Reading
On June 16, 2016, the IRS announced that it will be making Form 990s available in machine-readable format through Amazon Web Services. While this information has always been available to the public, it was previously only accessible in PDF format, making searching or viewing data in bulk nearly impossible. The IRS announcement is in response … Continue Reading
Although the IRS has warned taxpayers on multiple occasions about IRS phone scams, consumers continue to be victims. A lucrative scam for years, which according to the IRS, has cost victims more than $26 million since 2013, is only getting worse. The typical IRS phone scam is when someone calls stating that s/he is an … Continue Reading
According to a government report publicly released last week, the IRS failed to adequately respond to a May 2015 cyber-attack on its “Get Transcript” application that potentially compromised at least 621,000 taxpayer accounts. The United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) found that, while the IRS timely disabled the affected application, it failed … Continue Reading
The filing of fraudulent tax returns continues to be a serious problem in this country. Last year alone, the IRS has admitted that up to 720,000 taxpayers were victims. Last week, a Georgia couple pled guilty to filing fraudulent tax returns by using the IRS’ “Get Transcript” site. The couple used the personal information (including … Continue Reading
On March 1, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service alerted the business community of an e-mail phishing scheme designed to convince employees to provide company-wide W-2 tax forms containing social security numbers and other personally identifiable information [view related post]. While the scam has taken different forms, the most prevalent approach is a purported internal e-mail … Continue Reading
