The focus of this description isn't necessarily directly connected to taxes, but this problem Could impact your tax list and how Irs and communal safety view your taxes, liabilities, and - potentially - even your benefits, and, in some ways, even how your company operates.
The problem is widespread, and it is Identity Theft.
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Identity Theft, which is person else using your personal information without your consent or knowledge, has become a very prevalent and widely publicized issue the last few years. So much so, that this year it made the Irs list of the 2011 Dirty Dozen tax scams. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. One of our feature articles on our website is specific to the problem of Identity Theft: Seven Ways to safe Your Identity.
I remember as a teenager in San Diego receiving some very exquisite guidance from my father that I use to this day: he told me to never voluntarily give person my communal safety estimate unless they had a legal, valid, and compelling theorize to have that information. Keep in mind, this was in the days when use of communal safety Numbers for learner Id's, medical identification cards and doctors' records, guarnatee cards, and even drivers license numbers was widespread. I've kept his sage advice, and have even declined to use a dentist or physician if they say they "must" have my Ssn. I do not supply this information to utility and phone associates whether - they are not original granters of credit, do not have 1099 reporting requirements connected to me, and have no legal or compelling theorize to have my personal identifying information in this regard. Yes, I have had to submit some safety deposits, which are typically returned after a year of on-time payments, but I've also had the peace of mind knowing that the estimate that drives my whole financial history hasn't been unnecessarily released.
And if one of these non-credit providers asks for just the "last four numbers" of your communal safety estimate - see if you can use something else! These last four digits are the only truly Unique numbers of your Ssn. The first five numbers are traditionally based on your year of birth and where (what state) your communal safety estimate was issued - something a lot of identity thieves can find or determine just from your Facebook or LinkedIn profile! These state-of-issue algorithms are publicly ready at the communal safety Administration's website.
As a expert tax preparer, I'm in a high-risk business for having my personal identity stolen and/or misused. Up until 1999, paid tax preparers were Required to comprise their communal safety estimate on All returns they prepared. This means that my name and Ssn were released to hundreds of population just through mandatory compliance with Irs regulations. This was such a major issue, that in 1999, Irs launched their Ptin (Preparer Tax Identification Number) program, which was created to safe the privacy of tax return preparers. Just last year, in 2010, Irs made the Ptin program mandatory for all tax preparers in order to support with compliance and fraud discount efforts. Irs has also launched "test" programs where some tax documents will no longer comprise your full communal safety estimate - a very important turn given the estimate of mail that is stolen each year.
Unfortunately, no estimate of safeguards can fully insulate you from identity theft. The keys are to be diligent, alert, and take steps to safe your identity. Even though I've been very careful since my teens, as part of my diligence program, I've put some added protections in place to help keep me aware of what is happening with my credit, bank accounts, and Irs records. These steps involve some time, some expense, and typically increase the self-operating emails received, but I think the benefits outweigh those aspects. I'd like to share some of the tools I use with you, to think for use in your own safety plan:
Email: I do not ever send any document with my communal safety estimate or sensitive information via unsecured email. Email is not a fetch formula of sending and receiving information, and I strongly counsel clients to use our fetch upload server for confidential information, rather than sending documents via email. For document exchange and storage, I've been using Sharefile.com for several years. Their data centers are Sas 70 Type Ii certified, which means they endure every year independent audits by a Cpa firm that specifically verifies their compliance with stated safety procedures. File transfers are made with Ssl encryption, and you can elect to comprise encryption on the data warehouse side as well. Sharefile is a good resource for file transfers, securely synchronizing files between multiple computers, and remote file warehouse and backup.
Credit monitoring: you may read that reputation monitoring services are not worth the money, and that you can do the same thing without paying a aid to do this for you. While it's true that you can do some of these tasks yourself without incurring any fees, having real-time live scanning of my reputation profiles, chat room scanning to monitor illegal use of my Ssn, bank list numbers, and reputation card numbers, and a single point of touch for reporting any lost or stolen reputation cards is worth the moderate fee charged. If you do this on your own, you are allowed a free copy of your reputation reports once each year, or can receive copies if you've been declined reputation or are a victim of identity theft. For anything else, you'll have to pay a cut off fee, or jump through some time-consuming hoops. With the service, in addition to the free description I am entitled to annually through the Federal Trade Commission's reputation reporting program, I receive quarterly copies of all three major reputation bureau reports, daily monitoring of my reputation profiles with email alerts to any changes (including things as seemingly minor as an address change), reports of All names and addresses reported as connected to my reputation profile, and more. I've been using Identity Guard for quite awhile, and have been very satisfied with their service. I had tried an additional one monitoring service, but cancelled and went back to Identity Guard after two months, as I felt their aid was better. A subscription to Identity Guard's aid also gives you a copy of ZoneAlarm's antivirus and firewall program.
Something to keep in mind with regard to free copies of your reputation report: many of the websites you'll find if you do a hunt for "free reputation report" are legitimately subscription-based associates selling you a product or service. The Ftc has authorized one specific source for your free every year description under federal law: http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
Online Banking: most of us these days have internet passage to our bank accounts. While this is a favorable way to monitor our funds and do banking without having to drive in to the branch, you want to take steps to safe your bank information as well. First and foremost, don't use communal terminals or your wireless laptop at communal Hotspot locations such as Starbucks and the local library. These locations are prone to hackers using "sniffer" programs to ferret out usernames, passwords, and even fetch wireless keys, so they can steal or sell your information. I'm hesitant to even use any bank's "Smart phone" application ("app") to passage bank information from my cell phone, and without fail would not use the normal smart phone browser to do so.
If your bank offers online banking access, chances are they also supply you with the capability to set up assorted alerts. You might cringe to know how many emails I receive from our banks on a daily basis, but I strongly encourage you to set up at least the minimum safety-related notifications: changes in your log on identity, password, or email address, turn to your personal profile information along with address, phone number, etc., addition of other users or passage approvals, and withdrawals Or deposits over a distinct threshold dollar amount. For any seclusion Or deposit alerts, I use the bank's minimum. I want to know immediately if some scammer is using my debit card estimate to do "test" transactions of small amounts on my account, before going for the "big hit." It doesn't take too long to set up these alerts, and many banks also have the feature of having these alerts texted to your cell phone in addition to the email alert.
Irs Information: Yes, your Irs records may be attacked by person committing identity theft or fraud. If your Ssn is stolen and is being used by person to gain reputation or fetch a job, then any tax connected information will be reported to Irs using that Ssn. This means if person is working illegally and using your Ssn, or has created a reputation line that is defaulted and results in Cancellation of Debt (Cod) income, all of a sudden you will be receiving an Irs consideration for underreported income.
If you believe your tax information or tax-related identity has been stolen and misused, touch the Irs Identity safety Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490.
What to do if you've become a victim of identity theft:
One very principal key in this instance is to document, document, document. Take down the name, date, time, and phone estimate of every person you speak to. Document down to the small when the problem occurred and when you found out about it. File a police description (this will be required in order to place a fraud alert on your reputation profiles), and close any impacted accounts. Value if you need to close any accounts that may have been connected to the effected account(s).
A full list of steps, along with phone numbers and website addresses is ready at the Ftc Defend page: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/defend.html.
It is my hope that you never become a victim of identity theft or fraud. However, if you do, please be sure to act on it right away. This is a growing problem, and it unfortunately won't just disappear. I've noted several associates and websites in this article: I do not receive any financial benefit from these companies, and offer them only as a starting point for you to explore and set up your personal safety plan. There are many, many more services available: be sure to explore the programs, products and services that serve You best.
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