identity theft Archives - Blau Company Accounting & Tax Preparation

Thoughts on the IRS Data Breach

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Tuesday that a brute force hacking attempt has compromised approximately 104,000 taxpayer accounts through the utilization of the “Get Transcript” tool located on IRS.gov. Hackers utilized information gleaned from black market sources to answer identity verification questions and receive confidential information from the IRS system. The IRS reports that the system has been used 23 million times to provide taxpayers important information about their tax accounts as well as wage and earnings information. “It is important to understand less than one half of one percent of successful requests were fraudulent,” said Aaron Blau, a [...]

May 27th, 2015|Personal Tax|Comments Off

Preventing Identity Theft

Check your Credit Report You may monitor credit reports from the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the ONLY FREE monitoring site. Other sites (which may have catchy jingles) offer monthly subscriptions in order to receive your 'free' report. You are allowed, by federal law, to get a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each company. This means that you can check your report every 4 months (once from each company) for free. Keep Personal Information Secure - Offline Limit what you carry. Never carry your social security [...]

May 1st, 2014|Personal Tax|Comments Off

IRS Warns of Rise in Identity Theft

What is 'Identity Theft?' Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information, such as name, social security number, or other information, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. How can Identity Theft Affect Me? Generally, an identity thief will use legitimate identity information to fraudulently file an income tax return using phony information to claim a refund to which they are not entitled. Taxpayers are generally unaware this has occurred until they attempt to file their tax returns. Upon e-filing of the return, the processing is halted for a 'duplicate return' rejection code. You may also discover [...]

May 1st, 2014|Personal Tax|Comments Off

Avoid Identity Theft Scams

On January 22, 2014, the National Association of Enrolled Agents published the following information on How to Recognize and Avoid Identity Theft Scams ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington, DC, (January 22, 2014) Across the nation, identity thieves are using legitimate information to scam honest taxpayers, and frequently posing as the IRS to do so. The IRS is taking this seriously, and has created the IRS Identity Theft Protection Unit to address the growing problem. Being aware of some of the most common scams can help protect you from having your personal information used to commit fraud or other crimes. Phony IRS emails. In [...]

February 4th, 2014|General Consulting, Personal Tax|Comments Off

Identity Theft and the IRS

Identity Theft on The Rise Identity theft is on the increase, and the IRS is developing a robust response to claims. In 2011, the IRS had approximately 1,000 employees allocated to process identity theft claims. In 2012, that number had swelled to 3,000. The ease in which tax returns are filed is one of the prevailing reasons for fraud. Since W-2s aren't matched to tax returns until well after a return is filed, all a fraudster needs to fake a return is a name, accompanying social security number, and fake W-2 information. An effective means to thwarting identity theft is [...]

January 20th, 2014|General Consulting, Personal Tax|Comments Off