Identity Theft During Tax Season

Christmas time for identity thieves is now upon us. W-2's, tax forms, financial statements, all come out this special time of year for just about every person in the country.

Many will think very little about putting all of their personal records in a folder and taking them to a preparer sitting in a kiosk or booth at the mall or at a store that has set up this temporary area to capitalize on tax season.

I was observing one such place recently and was shocked at what I saw.

For starters there was no shredder anywhere to be found and I saw papers just tossed in a garbage can close by. I was not about to sift through it but I am sure there were worksheets and other discarded items from the preparer that should have been shredded. Items that contained plenty of personal information and enough for a savvy thief to use.

I saw her and her clients leave the "booth" and documents were left out in the open on the desk for anyone to walk up sit down pretend to be waiting and with a simple pen and paper copy social security numbers down.

If you feel compelled to have your taxes completed in such an environment, try to be aware of your surroundings and who can see. Take all your papers with you when you leave, even the scraps and worksheets. Be sure the preparer has not left any of your information laying around.

Most importantly, keep in mind that many of these temporary stations are staffed by temporary workers. You may be providing your personal information to someone who has just been hired. While I have to believe that there was some screening process, that is no guarantee that your information will be kept safe.

These people are hired and trained to complete tax returns, collect a fee and do it as quickly as possible. Information safety and security is probably not very high on the list. I'm sure they were told about it, handed a sheet of paper on it, and technically speaking "trained" to handle it properly, but if the goal is something other than that, one has to keep in mind how diligent are they really going to be.

You really need to decide if this is the environment you want to have your personal information exposed too.

Is your W-2 missing from your mailbox this week?

This really is about the golden ticket for an ID thief, your W-2. It has everything they need to get started being you. That form is your link between your employer, you, and the federal government. It is the one item in your mailbox this time of year that the thieves know is coming and has your vital social security number on it.

The beauty of that golden ticket is they are sitting in millions of mailboxes this week waiting for you to save it from the grasp of an identity thief. Didn’t get yours yet? Did your employer mail it out already to an unlocked curbside ID thief treasure chest, also known as a mailbox? You might want to start inquiring now.

What makes this so easy for the thieves is you have been receiving it in this manner forever and it has never been a problem. You know it is coming; you wait for it almost, especially if you are anticipating a refund. Many also know that their employer is required to issue them no latter that the last day of January. For those who choose not to hand it directly to the employees, they use the always reliable, United States Postal Service.

The safety net ends there. Once it is placed in that old trusted receptacle on your house, by the curb, at the end of a long driveway, or in a communal type apartment system, it is fair game to anyone who happens by.

That’s what makes you so vulnerable. An old system that seemed stable and reliable is now being exploited on a grand scale by identity thieves who rely on you to think that it will not happen. Ask 1 out of every 30 Americans last year who thought the same way. They will beg to differ.

National identity theft awareness week

While identity theft is a year round event, this coming week, could just qualify for National Identity Theft Awareness Week. The week could get this designation because it is becoming one of the more prevalent ones for identity theft due strictly to the time of year. No, there is no such week, but if there were any good time to raise awareness, this week is it.

We wouldn’t be human if we did not have some worry this time of year regarding filing our income taxes.

The forms, the documents, the receipts, the calculator, the room you barricade yourself in, and vow not to emerge until the deed is done. Those are all recurring items that we’ve been through before and will go through again, but we still feel anxiety regardless.

While getting your taxes done is paramount for this time of year, you need to be on alert for more than just an audit. The thieves and con artists go into overdrive this time of year. They feed on your sense of commitment and urgency to get that return done and in on time.

So what should you be concerned about? Here are my top 10 awareness items to think about this week for protecting yourself from an identity thief:

1) Shred all those printed copies that you found mistakes on, and had to reprint.

2) Keep your hard copy of your tax returns locked up.

3) If you use a tax preparer or a CPA, be sure they are securing your information, after you leave the office. Look around to see and verify that they use a shredder. Ask them how they secure your information when they are done for the night.

4) Give some consideration to where you are copying a tax return. It has recently come to light that copiers retain digital information of every copy they make, and some are not being properly erased.

5) If you used software at home on your own PC, save your tax returns to a disc and delete it from your hard drive. Keep in mind if you loose a laptop do you want your tax return available to anyone who acquires it?

6) Ignore and delete emails from the IRS. They don’t have your email address, do you remember providing it to them?

7) Only eFile through the links on the IRS website http://www.irs.gov/ . Recently thieves have been setting up fake eFile sites and collecting your information.

8) Don’t provide any information to any who calls claiming to be from the IRS.

9) Don’t leave your return in your mailbox. Take it to the post office directly.

10) Use a reputable tax preparer. Remember that you are handing them the keys to your identity, if you don’t know them, they may just drive off with it, or sell the information to a third party.

The IRS does not use email?

Around this time every year millions of emails arrive proclaiming the IRS needs you to verify your information, needs more information, has money to give back to you, and the list goes on and on. To conform, all you need to do is cough up some very valuable information.

They all invoke some type of high emotion, either fear or excitement. Both can cloud clear judgment, and reasoning. And it works, all too well.

Lets look at this from a logical and simple point of view. What is the main goal of the IRS? To collect tax revenue. What else do they do? Audit you to try and collect more tax revenue. Have you ever heard of them doing anything else?

Those two functions just about wrap it up.

So if we look at what they don’t do here is my simple list of 5 rules, and read rule #1 at least 50 times:

Rule 1)The IRS doesn’t ask for an email address on your 1040
Rule 2)The IRS doesn’t ask for missing information via email (See rule #1)
Rule 3)The IRS doesn’t ask for more information via email (See rule #1)
Rule 4)The IRS certainly doesn’t offer additional refund money via email (See rule #1)
Rule 5)The IRS absolutely doesn’t locate bonus or extra money just for you


Now go back and read rule #1 above again. If you can remember that, you can be assured that any message you get proclaiming anything from the IRS is a fake and a phishing scam.

So when you see the words IRS in an email for any reason instantly think of my IRS #1 rule and then hit the DELETE key.