FTC Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), “tax identity theft happens when someone uses your Social Security number to get a tax refund or a job.”

Both consumers and small businesses can increase their education and awareness by participating in this year’sFTC Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week (please see here https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0029-tax-identity-theft-awareness-week) where consumers will learn about tax-related identity theft, IRS imposter scams, how to protect yourself, and how to recover if you become a victim.

Small businesses will learn about protecting sensitive business and customer data including practical identity safety practices for your business. Small business will also learn about tax-related identity theft, imposter scams that target businesses, practical cybersecurity practices for small business, and data breach response.

In addition to, and separate from, the FTC Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, consumers need to be concerned with the Equifax data breach event and fraudulent income tax returns.

As most consumers know, Equifax announced last September their data breach event affecting 143 million U.S. consumers where information breached included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver's license numbers – all the personally identifiable information (PII) that ID theft criminals need to file fraudulent tax returns.FTC Tx Identty Thef Awarenees Wee