Tax-related identity theft can turn your life upside down and take years to resolve. I know, because it happened to me in 2007, after someone submitted an electronic tax return—days before I filed—containing personal information about me and my family, and a bogus return address. The mess took piles of paperwork, a tax advocate, and more than two years to resolve. To this day I still have nightmares that it could happen again.
Fortunately, consumers are more aware of the problem, and the IRS has made strides to educate the public, help victims, and prevent a reoccurrence. Here's some advice to flag potential problems:
I.D. protection tips
Protecting sensitive information in the first place and following up quickly to minimize the damage are paramount. Healthy skepticism can go a long way. For instance:
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4 comments:
first thing first. PICTURES on ALL credit cards should be mandatory! second, ID must be presented with credit cards. if a business fails to do so and charges are racked up by someone else, that business should be held accountable and pay for all expenses to fix their mess up and the victim has a nice law suit!
This is REAL and it happened to our father! In the last year of his life he was in 2 different hospitals and 4 different rehab facilities. All of them required his Medicare number which is basically the same as his Social Security number so it was easy for some clerical person to steal his information. We noticed it when we got an extra set of estimated tax payment coupons from the State of Maryland. Somebody had filed and gotten a huge earned income credit using his information.
Three weeks ago someone stole my identity. Sunday morning he showed up at my door begging me to take it back.
What's really maddening is when you write "Request ID" on the back of a credit card & stores look at it & don't even ask for it. I usually say something about not asking. Clerks that do ask for it get thanked.
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