Category Archives: irs

Tax prep tools lag in DMARC implementation, advocacy group says

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With tax season underway, a cybersecurity advocacy group is warning that vendors of popular tax preparation tools may be unprepared to protect users from phishing scams. Four out of the eight most popular tax preparation software products don’t employ basic protections against email spoofing, according to testing by the cybersecurity nonprofit Global Cyber Alliance. GCA tested the domains of the popular programs to check what settings they employ under the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) protocol. DMARC is an industry standard designed to detect and prevent email spoofing. GCA’s findings, released last week, are as follows: Reject: Liberty Tax Quarantine: Credit Karma, Jackson Hewitt and Tax Slayer None: Free Tax USA and Turbo Tax No policy: H&R Block and TaxAct DMARC has three levels of protection against emails that try to hijack a particular domain. If an organization employs the “reject” policy — the highest setting — a spoofed […]

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Combating W-2 Fraud, An Avalanche of False Positives and Wasted Time

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Nobody likes tax season. Except perhaps the cybercriminals who are successfully scamming users into sharing their W-2 information. Year over year, the number of IRS-related phishing scams targeting individuals and companies continues to grow, putting … Continue reading Combating W-2 Fraud, An Avalanche of False Positives and Wasted Time→

Coinbase releases data of 13,000 customers to IRS

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Following a court battle with the IRS, online cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will provide the records of 13,000 users to the tax collection agency, the company announced on Feb 23. The government will receive ‘certain limited categories’ … Continue reading Coinbase releases data of 13,000 customers to IRS→

Form W-2 data thefts are rocketing, warns FBI

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Businesses beware! Online criminals have ramped up their attempts to steal W-2 information from the finance and human resources departments of organisations, according to a warning issued by the FBI. In an alert issued last week, the FBI warned that it… Continue reading Form W-2 data thefts are rocketing, warns FBI→

Stay Safe in the Tax Season after Equifax

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‘Tis the season for tax fraud and identity theft via tax-related scams.  Tax fraud has been on the rise for years, and nearly 1 out of every 2 Americans are at increased risk for tax fraud due to the Equifax breach.  145 million America… Continue reading Stay Safe in the Tax Season after Equifax→

IRS Scam Leverages Hacked Tax Preparers, Client Bank Accounts

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Identity thieves who specialize in tax refund fraud have been busy of late hacking online accounts at multiple tax preparation firms, using them to file phony refund requests. Once the Internal Revenue Service processes the return and deposits money into bank accounts of the hacked firms’ clients, the crooks contact those clients posing as a collection agency and demand that the money be “returned.”

In one version of the scam, criminals are pretending to be debt collection agency officials acting on behalf of the IRS. They’ll call taxpayers who’ve had fraudulent tax refunds deposited into their bank accounts, claim the refund was deposited in error, and threaten recipients with criminal charges if they fail to forward the money to the collection agency.

This is exactly what happened to a number of customers at a half dozen banks in Oklahoma earlier this month. Elaine Dodd, executive vice president of the fraud division at the Oklahoma Bankers Association, said many financial institutions in the Oklahoma City area had “a good number of customers” who had large sums deposited into their bank accounts at the same time. Continue reading IRS Scam Leverages Hacked Tax Preparers, Client Bank Accounts→

Watchdog: Despite progress, IRS needs to improve electronic fraud detection

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A Treasury Department watchdog says the Internal Revenue Service has made progress in improving its identity management controls for people filing their taxes online, but still has some work to do when it comes to identifying fraudulent profiles and activity. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which audits the IRS, released a report Thursday appraising the agency’s implementation and improvement of authentication controls. TIGTA credited the IRS for requiring taxpayers to use two-factor authentication to log on to use the IRS’s online services. The auditor also said the IRS improved its ability to automatically to monitor activity across different systems and detect any anomalies. “Using this tool, the Cyber Fraud Analytics group identified fraudulent activity in which fraudsters improperly used data stolen from sources outside of the IRS to successfully perpetrate a small number of targeted attacks,” TIGTA said. However, the auditor added that those monitoring tools need […]

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File Your Taxes Before Scammers Do It For You

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Today, Jan. 29, is officially the first day of the 2018 tax-filing season, also known as the day that fraudsters start requesting phony tax refunds in the names of identity theft victims. Want to minimize the chances of getting hit by tax refund fraud this year? File your taxes before the bad guys can!

Tax refund fraud affects hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of U.S. citizens annually. Victims usually first learn of the crime after having their returns rejected because scammers beat them to it. Even those who are not required to file a return can be victims of refund fraud, as can those who are not actually due a refund from the IRS. Continue reading File Your Taxes Before Scammers Do It For You→

Registered at SSA.GOV? Good for You, But Keep Your Guard Up

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KrebsOnSecurity has long warned readers to plant your own flag at the my Social Security online portal of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) — even if you are not yet drawing benefits from the agency — because identity thieves have been registering accounts in peoples’ names and siphoning retirement and/or disability funds. This is the story of a Midwest couple that took all the right precautions and still got hit by ID thieves who impersonated them to the SSA directly over the phone.
In mid-December 2017 this author heard from Ed Eckenstein, a longtime reader in Oklahoma whose wife Ruth had just received a snail mail letter from the SSA about successfully applying to withdraw benefits. The letter confirmed she’d requested a one-time transfer of more than $11,000 from her SSA account. The couple said they were perplexed because both previously had taken my advice and registered accounts with MySocialSecurity, even though Ruth had not yet chosen to start receiving SSA benefits. Continue reading Registered at SSA.GOV? Good for You, But Keep Your Guard Up→