We at Houston B&J Bookkeeping love warning you about tax scams and have more to share. In short, tax identity theft can occur when someone uses your personal info to file a phony tax return and collect your return. This includes information such as your Social Security number, birthday, and more. It also can occur when someone else uses your Social Security number to apply for a job, claim a dependent, or other tax related purpose. Tax identity theft can go beyond normal ID theft and is currently the most prevalent form of identity theft reported to the Federal Trade Commission in the last five years.
1. Protect Your Documents
In order to perform this act, these thieves need your personal and tax information. There are only a few ways to prevent this that include but are not limited to:
- Shredding sensitive documents before throwing them in the trash.
- Your sensitive documents can also be kept at work. Make sure your human resources and other related departments have a secure method of storing them.
- Be sure not to leave these sensitive documents on your desk or out in the open at work when not using them.
- Do not give out your Social Security number or other information over the phone. Only accredited government and credit agencies should have your info. Your bank and healthcare provider can also have your SSN and other sensitive info. Everyone else does not need it.
- In order to not give out this info in other ways, do not answer mail that says “you have won a contest” or other suspicious pieces of mail that ask for your SSN. When in doubt, look them up yourself to see if they are legit.
2. Protect Your Device or Devices
Since you are reading this, we are pretty sure you have a computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc. Tax information is very easy to get from one of these. Identity thieves may send you an email with a link, hack a friend or family members account and prompt you to click a link, and that may be enough to allow them to rifle through your files and get your information. Use an anti-virus and spam protector to keep suspicious emails away. You can also look up a suspicious URL before clicking on it by copying and pasting it into the search engine of Web of Trust. Over 140 million users report fraudulent URLs here on a regular basis, and chances are yours may already be reported.
3. File Your Tax Return Early
If you are owed a refund, what are you waiting for? File now, as all your tax documents should have been mailed to you by now. Not only will you get your refund even sooner, you will prevent any fraudulent tax returns from being filed on your behalf. Live in Houston and need some help? Feel free to contact our firm.
4. Get a PIN
The IRS also allows you to obtain a unique PIN number that is an added layer of security. It does take about 10 minutes to get. However, when you think of the time it can save you, it can be worth it.
5. File Smart
It’s great to file your tax return online, but this can also pose a tax identity theft risk should it be done wrong. Never file your taxes, input your Social Security number, or enter any sensitive information when on a public wifi network. Do all your important business at home or through a secure connection. Filing via snail mail? Don’t put the envelope in your own mailbox. Those looking to commit tax identity theft may troll through neighborhoods before the mail comes looking for just such an envelope. Mail your tax return using an official mailbox that only accepts items, or better yet, at the post office itself.
6. No Phone Calls
We’ve seen it growing every year. Fraudsters may call you posing as the IRS. They can even have a Washington D.C. area code or display a tax agency sounding name on your caller ID via some hackery. Note that the Internal Revenue Service DOES NOT CALL TAX PAYERS. If the IRS does need to get in contact with you, they will send a letter. You can then call them to assure its authenticity.
7. Monitor Your Credit
These credit monitoring agencies can help with tax identity theft by alerting you if and when thieves attempt to open a credit account. They can also alert you if a loan is taken, bank account is compromised, and many other items. There are both paid and free options such as Life Lock and Credit Karma that can help with this. It all depends on what you want in your credit monitoring.
Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week in Houston
And if you need more help for Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week or any other week, feel free contact us for help.