IRS warning: increased hacking of personal tax information

IRS sent out another warning for the 2016 tax season.
They have detected more suspicious activity in taxpayers’ IRS accounts.
1026 incidents have been reported in January — that’s a 25 percent increase from the prior year.
The trend continued in February – the number nearly doubled compared to the year before.

People are receiving fraudulent emails that look like an official IRS correspondence.
The emails request tax-related information like filing status, confirming your PIN, etc.
This information can be used to file false tax returns.
Furthermore, when clicking on the email links, you are taken to what looks like an official IRS website.
There you are asked to provide more personal information including your social security number.

With such an increase in phishing and malware, do be careful.

What was he thinking?!
In 2015 a man from Missouri posted a Craigslist ad.
The ad read:
“Wanted: Kids to claim on income taxes.
If you have some kids you aren’t claiming,
I will pay you $750 each to claim them on my return.”

The man filed a false tax return for 2014 on February 3, 2015.
He claimed three dependents, a daughter and two sons.
A day later he did the same thing for 2013 and 2012 taxes.

He was indicted last month on three counts of filing false tax returns.

What was he thinking?!

      
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Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
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