The IRS is warning about a new scam that targets your bank account using an old-fashioned mailer. Questions: Source: Tanner, J. IRS warns taxpayers of new ‘unclaimed refund’ scam – here’s how it works. The Hill, July 8 (Retrievable online at https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4085938-irs-warns-taxpayers-of-new-unclaimed-refund-scam-heres-how-it-works/
Posts Tagged: identity theft
Are All Mugshots Created Equally? Depends on How Much They Are Worth!
According to Wired.com and ARS Technica, the California attorney general’s office charged four people with extortion, money laundering, and identity theft for their alleged involvement with the website Mugshots.com, which posts people’s mugshots, but will take them down for a fee. Questions: Questions: 1. Nationally, how much did the owners receive from people wanting their… Read more »
Beware of the Imposter!
Jeremy Wilson spent 25 years fabricating new aliases, leaving behind a thicket of confusing and falsified records. Along the way, he had more than 27 aliases in five states. Now he is at Rikers Island, awaiting trial. Questions: 1. How did Mr. Wilson use these various identities to commit fraud? 2. What does the article… Read more »
Tax Fraud in South Florida? Surely you jest?
In North Miami, Josue Pierre took a shortcut into the easy-money underworld of tax fraud by using an “electronic filing identification number” — EFIN for short, and stolen IDs to file hundreds of fabricated online tax returns. Questions: 1. Why does Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Berger say that using EFINs is like “tax fraud on… Read more »
Is it wise to taunt the IRS and the Tampa Police Department on Facebook?
As accounting firms frantically work during this season to prepare 2013 tax returns, this story takes a look back at the story of the “Queen of Tax Fraud.” Rashida Wilson, a 27-year-old Tampa woman, who once taunted police and bragged about her ill-gotten millions on a social media website, won’t be a free woman until… Read more »
Traveling Electronically Naked
When Kenneth G. Lieberthal travels to China, he leaves his cellphone and laptop at home. As an expert at the Brookings Institute, he instead brings “loaner” devices, which he erases before he leaves the United States and then wipes clean the minute he returns. In China, he disables Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, never lets his phone… Read more »
Expensive Steaks
Fifty diners at some of the better steakhouse restaurants in New York City, including the Capital Grille, Smith & Wollensky, JoJo and Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, became victims of a scam perpetrated by seven waiters using lipstick-size electronic “skimmers” to extract data from the magnetic strips of American Express Centurion, or “black,” cards and other high- and… Read more »