With tax season on us, ID thieves and scammers are in high
gear to take your money through fraud. Tax fraud is a big problem for the IRS
and for tax payers. Scammers use two methods to get to your money through the
IRS. One way is to obtain your personal information, name, address, social
security number, and file an income tax return as you, then obtain a refund
from the IRS. The other way is to pose as an IRS agent in a phone call or email
to you and demand immediate payment of a bogus fine or owed taxes. According to
the US Treasury Department, it has received 900,000 reports of IRS scam calls
since October of 2013.
Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week is an attempt to educate
everyone about these threats.
Note- There has been an increasing effort to educate the
public about IRS scams. The federal government loses money as well as
victimized citizens. You can help by learning all that you can about the IRS
scams and pass this information onto your family, neighbors and friends.
FTC:
Yes. Some education seminars or any other activities should be held so that people will be aware of these scams. There have been so many reports and warnings about these IRS scams that I can find mostly at sites like http://whycall.me. However, not all people have access to read those warnings, so it will be good if such seminars could be held.
ReplyDeleteA good resource is AARP's Fraud Watch Network (http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/fraud-watch-network/). They periodically conduct seminars in the state to talk about ID theft and cyber security. Scammers frequently target vulnerable populations such as the elderly and immigrants. Its important to pass this information to those who may not normally see this information.
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