Coincidentally (see the previous post), yesterday I received an email from Lisa Lake, Director of Consumer & Business Education of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). She was highlighting the FTC’s Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week. Happily, this is not a how-to for individuals looking to commit identity theft; rather, it’s a campaign to raise awareness of how consumers can protect themselves from tax ID theft and IRS imposter scams.
Here’s what Ms. Lake wrote:
I thought Taxable Talk readers would like to know about Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, an initiative led by the Federal Trade Commission taking place January 26-30, 2015.
Identity theft is the largest complaint category at the FTC and, within that category; tax identity theft has emerged as the largest subcategory. IRS imposter scams and similar ruses are a new twist targeting taxpayers. As of August 2014, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) had received over 210,000 complaints with victims losing about $11 million to these scams. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s Sentinel data also shows a significant spike with tens of thousands of these complaints in 2014.
IRS imposter schemes typically work like this:
• Someone calls or emails pretending to be from the IRS
• Scammers rig caller ID to make it look like IRS is calling (may have DC 202 area code)
• Scammers may know the last 4 digits of your SSN
• They may use fake IRS badge #s
• They ask people to wire money or put it on a money card
• Scammers may threaten arrest, deportation or loss of driver’s license
• Sometimes they make a follow-up call pretending to be from DMV or police, also rigging caller idYour newspaper can help raise awareness about how consumers can protect themselves from tax ID theft and IRS imposter scams. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Tax Identity Theft Week website (ftc.gov/taxidtheft) provides your readers with tools to do that. We also want to let consumers know how to file a complaint with the FTC; we hope you share the complaint link www.ftc.gov/complaint and the toll-free number 1-877-FTC-HELP with your readers, as well.
Also, there will be a free webinar hosted by the FTC on during Tax Identity Theft on January 27, 2015, at 2pm EST. Consumers can visit ftc.gov/taxidtheft to register and get more information.
I’m all for anything that will put a bite into identity theft. Hopefully this will make a difference.
