I mentioned in a prior article that individuals would be able to participate in the identity protection PIN program. This PIN is a six-digit number assigned to eligible taxpayers to help prevent misuse of Social Security Numbers being used on fraudulent federal income tax returns. If you would like to take advantage of this program, […]
Fake Payments with Repayment Demands: Criminals are always finding new ways to trick taxpayers into believing their scam including putting a bogus refund into the taxpayer’s actual bank account. Here’s how the scam works: A con artist steals or obtains a taxpayer’s personal data including Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and […]
Scams targeting non-English speakers: IRS impersonators and other scammers also target groups with limited English proficiency. These scams are often threatening in nature. Some scams also target those potentially receiving an Economic Impact Payment and request personal or financial information from the taxpayer. Phone scams pose a major threat to people with limited access to […]
This week we continue our IRS Dirty Dozen list of tax scams. Social Media Scams: Taxpayers need to protect themselves against social media scams, which frequently use events like COVID-19 to try tricking people. Social media enables anyone to share information with anyone else on the Internet. Scammers use that information as ammunition for a […]
Each year, the Internal Revenue Service releases its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams. This year, there is a special emphasis on aggressive and evolving schemes related to coronavirus tax relief, including Economic Impact Payments. I will be sharing this year’s “Dirty Dozen” over the course of the next four blogs. “Tax scams tend […]
Yep, your cell phone can easily be hijacked – taken over by criminals. And, this isn’t just phone calls, but EVERYTHING on your phone – emails, bank information, photos, etc., Everything is vulnerable. So, what do you have on your phone? Anything that is sensitive? With information available online, it is not difficult to get […]
There cannot be enough said these days about protecting yourself and your electronics. We have conditioned ourselves to the need to have access every minute, it seems. But, do we really stop and think about safety and security when we are using free public WiFi? Should we? We should be very concerned when using free […]
There have been so many fraudulent claims to Medicare for durable medical equipment (DME) — wheelchairs, walkers, braces and other devices prescribed by doctors to help patients deal with an injury or chronic illness at home that have been in excess of $6 BILLION, yes Billion, a YEAR! Yikes. This is yet another way older […]
Medicare and its more than 60 million beneficiaries are under attack from scammers who want to disrupt the program. Their primary aim is defrauding Medicare itself. Billions of dollars were lost in 2017 due to fraud, abuse and improper billing. You ask – how can this happen? Their schemes target beneficiaries directly, steal identities or […]
IRS scams and phishing, identity theft, this scam, that scam — What’s This World Coming To? Scammers are creative. Must be nice not to have anything else to do but come up with new ploys to intimidate and steal from law-abiding citizens. The elderly are particularly vulnerable in these ploys and so easily fall prey […]
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