Now is the Busy Season for Cyber Criminals Posing as Executives to Obtain W-2s -
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...more
1/4/2018
/ Ancestry.com ,
Charitable Donations ,
Children's Toys ,
Connected Items ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Drones ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Identity Theft ,
Income Taxes ,
IRS ,
Lenovo ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Scams ,
Settlement ,
Software ,
Tax Fraud ,
W-2
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), one of the watchdogs of the financial services industry, has announced through Acting Director Mick Mulvaney that it will no longer collect personal information of consumers...more
12/8/2017
/ Carpenter v US ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Darknet ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Drones ,
Emergency Response ,
FCC ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Identity Theft ,
Internet ,
Location Data ,
Net Neutrality ,
NYDFS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
SCOTUS ,
Unmanned Aircraft Systems
People always ask me what hackers do when they are able to obtain our personal information, including our Social Security numbers. There are many things hackers use our information for, some of which include filing false tax...more
I just read an article about a nurse from Florida who was convicted of wire fraud, theft of government funds, possession of unauthorized access devices and aggravated identity theft....more
I haven’t been in the dating scene for decades but I know it sure has changed. Millions of people participate in online dating, and I even know several couples who have found their significant other using online dating...more
It is one thing to steal our identity as an adult, but children are defenseless against this type of fraud. According to Experian, it handles 25,000-30,000 cases of identity theft and fraud every year and a whopping 17...more
In November 2015, VTech Electonics North America LLC (VTech) announced that an unauthorized party infiltrated its network and gained access to the personal information of 5 million adults and 6.5 million children through its...more
In a scathing report published on March 27, 2017, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration blasted the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) following its analysis of the IRS’ steps following a data breach in 2015 that...more
West Virginia University Medicine University Healthcare (WVUM) has confirmed that it is sending notification letters to over 7,400 of its patients seen at Berkeley Medical Center as a result of an unauthorized access to their...more
W-2 phishing schemes continue to be a problem for companies in every industry. Last week, American Senior Communities based in Indiana announced that one of its employees was scammed through a phishing email and thereafter...more
We continue to see all industries hit with W2 phishing scams, including the health care industry.
Citizens Memorial Hospital, located in Bolivar, Missouri, was hit with the scam when one of its employees believed that an...more
2/24/2017
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Payroll Records ,
Phishing Scams ,
Tax Fraud ,
Tax Returns ,
W-2
A study released by Javelin Strategy & Research has concluded that the number of identity fraud cases in 2016 rose 16% from 2015, costing victims $16 billion in losses. This includes both identity theft and credit card fraud....more
We always see a surge in W2 email phishing schemes this time of year, as it is tax time, and many individuals are filing their tax returns in order to get a quick refund. So are criminals and cyber-hackers.
...more
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...more
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a series of cybersecurity proposals that are designed to protect consumers and government entities from cybercrime and identity theft. One of the proposals includes the creation of a...more
A federal judge in Illinois dismissed the class action lawsuit filed against Barnes & Noble stemming from a data breach in 2013. The breach occurred when credit and debit card PIN pads were compromised at 63 Barnes & Noble...more
10/10/2016
/ Barnes and Noble ,
Books ,
Class Action ,
Data Breach ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Dismissals ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Fraudulent Charges ,
Identity Theft ,
Point of Sale Terminals ,
Popular ,
Retail Market ,
Retailers
On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, a federal judge in California granted approval of the $68 million settlement between LifeLock and a class of plaintiffs that alleged it made false statements about the services it provides to...more
9/27/2016
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
False Advertising ,
False Statements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Identity Theft ,
LifeLock ,
Mediation ,
Passwords ,
Settlement Agreements
The Manhattan District Attorney announced this week that a former employee of Lenox Hill Hospital’s wife plead guilty to grand larceny, identity theft in the first degree, and criminal possession of stolen property after her...more
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...more
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...more
With more and more information online, it is easy to accumulate a lot of information about individuals just by using a search engine. Scammers use online information to build profiles of victims and then use different scams...more
Omni Hotels notified guests on Friday, July 8, 2016, that its point of sale systems were compromised with malware from December 23, 2015, through June 15, 2016....more
7/14/2016
/ Consumer Credit Protection ,
Credit Cards ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Debit Cards ,
Hackers ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Identity Theft ,
Malware ,
Payment Systems ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Point of Sale Terminals
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,...more
We have been repeatedly warning our clients and readers about the massive and successful W-2 phishing schemes where hackers impersonate the CEO or CFO and send emails to payroll and/or HR folks in companies requesting W-2...more
6/1/2016
/ Cyber Crimes ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Payroll Records ,
Phishing Scams ,
Social Security Numbers ,
Sports ,
Tax Fraud ,
W-2
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...more