Identity theft is rampant, and there have been plenty of situations in which financial and personal data have been compromised. Think Target, Home Depot, and J.P. Morgan Chase, most recently, affecting hundreds of thousands. While these entities are huge and the breaches far reaching, there is one even bigger that keeps the most sensitive of all financial data\u2026 and one you\u2019re obliged to obey: the Internal Revenue Service.<\/p>\n
However, it\u2019s critical to your identity safety to understand the IRS rules regarding contact. Very simply, the IRS will never call you or email you<\/span><\/strong>. Never. Legitimate contact from the IRS always comes in the mail. Always. Nevertheless, scammers try, and we recently had a few clients who received such calls, known as phishing.<\/p>\n Because of the reputation of the IRS to be able to demand money, people fall prey to these phishing calls and may unwittingly reveal personal information that can be used to later hack accounts. According to the IRS, there are five telltale signs of an IRS scam<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>:<\/p>\n What to Do Next<\/strong><\/p>\n If you receive such a call or email and know or think you may owe taxes, call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040 to confirm the amount owed and payment options. If you know you don\u2019t owe taxes, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1-800-366-4484 or online at www.tigta.gov<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>. (See \u201cIRS Impersonation Scam Reporting.\u201d) There are three primary areas on which to keep tabs regarding protecting your identity.<\/p>\n Credit Cards<\/strong><\/p>\n Review each credit card statement thoroughly and verify that each charge is accurate. Never overlook a minor but unknown charge. It\u2019s an indicator that your account has possibly been compromised! Monitor your account online regularly to watch for charges you haven\u2019t made.<\/p>\n IRS<\/strong><\/p>\n The IRS has all of your prior work history and filing transcripts. They would never call asking you for information because they already have it. Social Security Work History<\/strong><\/p>\n Check your Social Security employment records to verify accuracy. You may have paid more into the system then was actually reported. It\u2019s important to hold on to your pay stubs in case there is ever a dispute. You can set up an account online to track your Social Security records.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Identity theft is rampant, and there have been plenty of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3088,"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions\/3088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waddytax.com\/dcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nIf you are the victim of a scam or attempted scam, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission via their site at FTC Complaint Assistant<\/span><\/span>. Select \u201cOther\u201d then \u201cImposter Scams.\u201d<\/p>\nIdentity Verification<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
\nYou can actually register online at www.irs.gov<\/span><\/a><\/span> to receive a copy of your transcript to help prepare your taxes. Having this transcript prior to your appointment with us is extremely helpful.<\/p>\n