There has recently been a story in Philadelphia regarding the theft of information from a person while hospitalized. The end result was not pleasant with the theft of money from the hospitalized person’s assets. Stop and think for a minute – you go to the hospital – whether in anticipation of being an inpatient or […]
If you want to protect yourself from tax-related identity theft, you can opt into the IP PIN program offered by the IRS. Currently, there are over 5 million taxpayers participating in the program which enables them to be proactive in preventing identity theft. If you are interested in joining the movement to protect your identity […]
An IP PIN, you ask – what is it? Well, it is an Identity Protection PIN which prevents the filing of a tax return using your Social Security Number by someone other than you. These PINs have been around for several years but were issued only when someone had fraudulent activity on their account or […]
The Internal Revenue Service continues in its fight against cyber criminals and is constantly finding new ways that these criminals are obtaining information. There is no limit to the means in which crimes can occur. Whether through a telephone call, text message or email, the con artist tries to convince the recipient that they need […]
We seem to be inundated with information to the extent that we can be overwhelmed. What should we pay attention to? What isn’t relevant to our situation? Is the information being provided valid and authentic? So, what should we do? First of all, be cautious on the source of the information. Is it from a […]
Whether you think about your home or your office (in office or remote office), do you have confidential or sensitive information out in the open? Easily accessible? If a visitor were to come near your work area, could information be breached? Do you have either professional or personal information easily accessible whether it be on […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
One might think that since April 15 has passed, so has the season for tax scams. Think again. There is no season for tax scams. They occur 365 days a year. The IRS has reported a couple of new variations of tax-related scams. They call one of them the SSN HUSTLE. In this scam, the […]
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