Following up on last week’s blog announcing the FTC’s Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, here is a review of steps to take if you have the unfortunate experience of falling victim.

If you think someone used your SSN for a tax refund or a job — or the IRS sends you a notice or letter indicating a problem — contact the IRS immediately. Specialists will work with you to get your tax return filed, get you any refund you are due, and protect your IRS account from identity thieves in the future.

A first step is to contact the IRS and report the fraud to the IRS

Send a copy of your police report or an IRS ID Theft Affidavit Form 14039 and proof of
your identity, such as a copy of your Social Security card, driver’s license or passport.

Update your files being sure to record the dates you made calls or sent letters. Keep copies of letters in your files.

To limit further damage, once you’ve contacted the IRS, you should also consider putting a fraud alert on your credit reports and ordering fresh copies of your credit reports for review.

For more information on best practices regarding identity theft protection, please visit www.hvshred.com

The FTC (the government office tasked with identity theft related issues) recently announced January 13-17 as Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week.

What follows is excerpted from the FTC’s recent blog.

“The IRS uses your Social Security Number (SSN) to make sure your filing is accurate and complete, and that you get any refund you are due. Identity theft can affect how your tax return is processed. An unexpected notice or letter from the IRS could alert you that someone else is using your SSN, however, the IRS doesn’t start contact with a taxpayer by sending an email, text or social media message that asks for personal or financial information. If you get an email that claims to be from the IRS, do not reply or click on any links. Instead, forward it to phishing@irs.gov.
If someone uses your SSN to file for your tax refund before you file, they may get your refund. When you file your return later, IRS records will show the first filing and refund, and you’ll get a notice or letter from the IRS saying more than one return was filed for you.
If someone uses your SSN to get a job, the employer may report that person’s income to the IRS using your SSN. When you file your tax return, you won’t include those earnings. IRS records will show you failed to report all your income. The agency will send you a notice or letter saying you got wages but didn’t report them. The IRS doesn’t know those wages were reported by an employer you don’t know.
If you think someone used your SSN for a tax refund or a job — or the IRS sends you a notice or letter indicating a problem — contact the IRS immediately. Specialists will work with you to get your tax return filed, get you any refund you are due, and protect your IRS account from identity thieves in the future.”

For more on identity theft prevention, please visit www.hvshred.com

Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror and that means the holiday shopping season is now at full steam ahead.

As we have noted in the past in this blog, we have found the FTC (the government office charged with dealing with Identity theft issues) to be a useful resource. What follows is the tips recently posted for best practices for on-line shopping.
With the on-line holiday shopping season heating up with “Cyber Monday”, please review these tips before “heading to the stores”

• Read reviews. Type the name of the product or company into a search engine along with words like “review,” “complaint,” or “scam.” Be sure to read a few reviews — don’t rely on just one source.
• Look for coupon codes. Search the store’s name with terms like “coupons,” “discounts,” or “free shipping.”
• Know the terms. Find out what the refund/exchange policies are, and if there are any charges (like shipping costs or restocking fees) if you return a product.
• Pay by credit card. Credit cards give you protections that other methods of payment may not. If there’s a problem, you have the right to dispute charges and temporarily withhold payment while your dispute is investigated.
• Use secure checkout. Before you enter your credit card information online, check that the website address starts with “https”. The “s” stands for secure. If you don’t see the “s,” don’t enter your information.

For more helpful tips for best practices related to identity theft protection, please visit www.hvshred.com

As we dig into the meat of the final quarter of 2013, we suggest businesses take a serious look at their current document filing practices.  Many companies keep on storing more documents year after year because they have no idea when they are supposed to get rid of them.  By default, they typically remain in a heap in the back corner of the most distant warehouse, tucked away in a basement or attic, or out of sight out of mind at an expensive storage facility.  No matter what, the paperwork is eating up valuable resources that should be put to better uses.  For companies that have been in operation for many years, this can become a considerable burden—especially if management has been purchasing expensive filing cabinets to store the old records or paying rent at a storage facility.

We suggest management work with the company’s CPA’s and lawyers to construct a document-destruction policy. The policy should take into account the document retention requirements of all federal, state, and local regulatory agencies, always adopting the longest required retention periods.

The next step is to eliminate all items for which there is no legal reason to keep.  Bringing in an on-site shredding service provides the assurance of witnessing the proper disposal as well as the benefit of the certificate of destruction to demonstrate due diligence with respect to the law.  In addition to seeing significant savings in storage space and efficiency, companies can also feel good about the fact that the shredded paper will be recycled.

For more information on on-site document destruction, please visit www.hvshred.com

Most of us have experienced the scam email from the friend/relative overseas in desperate need of money fast.  In a strange but true experience, our family at HV Shred got the phone call.  In textbook fashion, the scammers targeted a most vulnerable population–senior citizens.  Seniors are most likely to be home to get these calls as well as perhaps not fully mentally present to think clearly and hang up.  Fortunately, the seniors in our situation are still “with it”–instead of a sad story of lost money, we have a funny–“Can you believe that actually happened to us?” story.

On a typical run of the mill morning, Grandma got a phone call from her supposed grandson traveling in Peru.  The supposed grandson had a cold (explaining why his voice may seem different) and really needed Grandma’s help to bail him out of a situation where he’d been detained by local authorities.  The scam was quickly squashed when Grandpa grabbed the phone and asked “What is your last name?”-the response to which was a dial tone.

The moral of the story is–these scams are actually happening.  Please educate all loved ones to be wary.  Under no circumstances should anyone share personally identifying information over the phone or in an email when the communication is initiated by the requesting party.  Hang up the phone! Delete the email!  Keep on guard!  It happens, but let’s make sure it doesn’t happen to us!

For more on best practices for identity theft prevention, please visit www.hvshred.com

One of the blogs we monitor to keep our community aware of the latest scams is the Internet Crime Complaint Center.  A recent posting on that site focused on “CryptoLocker Ransomware”.  According to the FBI, CryptoLocker is a file encrypting Ransomware.  Businesses receive an email with alleged customer complaints and contains an attachment that when opened, appears as a window and is in fact a malware downloader. This downloader than downloads and installs the actual CryptoLocker malware.

The wording in the window states that important files have been encrypted using a unique public key generated for the computer. To decrypt the files victims need to obtain the private key. A copy of the private key is located on a remote server that will destroy the key after the specified time shown in the window. The attackers demand a ransom of $300.00 to be paid in order to decrypt the files.

According to the post, once the encryption of the files is complete, decryption is not feasible. To obtain the file specific Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) key to decrypt a file, victims need the private RSA key (an algorithm for public key cryptography) corresponding to the RSA public key generated for the victim’s system by the command and control server. However, this key never leaves the command and control server, putting it out of reach of everyone except the attacker. The recommended solution is to scrub your hard drive and restore encrypted files from a backup.

As with any virus or malware, the way to avoid it is with safe browsing and email habits. Specifically, in this case, be wary of email from senders you don’t know and never open or download an attachment unless you’re sure you know what it is and that it’s safe. Be especially wary of unexpected email from postal/package services and dispute notifications.

If you have been a victim of an internet scam, please file a complaint at www.ic3.gov.

For more on best practices to steer clear of identity theft and related scams, please visit www.hvshred.com

This week we use our blog to remind our community about a common scam.  Always be wary of automated voice messages when you pick up a call.  An ongoing scam is the one that alerts recipients that their debit cards are inactive, frozen, or locked.  Oftentimes, these calls repeat and have an official and insistent tone.

The automated system prompts listeners to press 1 to re-activate the card and, once the key is pressed, the robot asks for their card number and PIN.

If you get an automated call—HANG UP!

If you are concerned about any of your cards, contact your financial institution directly to verify.  Initiate all calls that involve sharing personally identifying information.  Those are best practices to deter identity thieves.

For more information on identity theft protection, please visit www.hvshred.com