Tax identity theft continues to be a significant problem for taxpayers. Tax identity theft occurs when criminals use the personal information of individuals and file fraudulent tax returns before the taxpayer does, requesting...more
Synthetic identity fraud (SIF) is a recent phenomenon that scammers have used to circumvent the increasing awareness of traditional identity fraud. Instead of stealing a real person’s identity as with traditional identity...more
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
Last week was National Consumer Protection Week. In celebration of that, this post is devoted to protection from tax identity theft. ...more
As tax season winds on, the W-2 form scam has emerged as one of the most dangerous and common phishing email schemes during this time of year....more
We all know that it is important to protect our social security number. But sometimes companies still try to use the last four digits of our social security numbers as identifiers or to verify identity in some way....more
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...more
The IRS is putting an increased emphasis on identity theft protections for business returns as a result of an increase in fraudulent business tax returns in recent years. The IRS will be asking tax professionals to gather...more
With tax season in full swing, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), state tax agencies, and tax industry groups recently renewed a warning about Form W-2 email spear-phishing scams. ...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
The Internal Revenue Service issued an alert about an emerging phishing email scheme that purports to be from company executives and requests personal information on employees. The IRS has learned this scheme – part of...more
In the midst of this tax season, a number of companies have fallen victim to the latest spear phishing e-mail scheme, resulting in the unauthorized disclosure of their employees’ W-2 information and learning the hard lesson...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued an alert regarding a phishing email scheme in which cybercriminals pose as governmental officials or company executives and request employee payroll and tax data, including...more
It is not a matter of "if" but "when" an employer will be required to notify employees of a security breach. Forty-seven states require employers to notify employees when defined categories of personal information, including...more
A California federal judge has ruled that a former Uber driver who is suing Uber in a proposed class action case was unable to show that he suffers an immediate threat of identity theft and dismissed the driver’s first...more
As we head into the end of 2015, state legislators across the country continue to strengthen, update and, in some instances, broaden the scope of their respective state data breach notification laws. Specifically, many...more
The Department of Justice has announced that 25 year old Hieu Minh Ngo has been sentenced to 13 years in prison. His sentence was lighter than expected because he has cooperated with authorities to catch more identity...more