With tax season – and tax scams – in full swing, here’s how fraudsters can steal your tax refund, and how you can avoid becoming a victim
Identity theft is estimated to affect nearly 60 million people in the USA; or, considered another way, that is more than 1 in every 6 Americans. Cybercriminals will use any opportunity to monetize the effort they have taken to steal an identity, and at this time of year it’s probably tax identity theft for the purposes of tax refund fraud.
US residents and citizens are required to file taxes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the filing is a summary of their earnings and possible deductions so that tax liabilities and credits can be reconciled. The USA works on a deduction system that reduces tax liability, for example if you own a home the property taxes can be deductible. The list of possible deductibles is extensive and if you are an employee, it normally results in a refund on taxes paid through normal payroll withholding.
Each individual filing taxes in the USA is identified by either a social security number or, in some cases, a unique Tax Identification Number (TIN). A Social Security Number (SSN) is a very common form of identifying an individual in the USA, used by banks, health care providers, government agencies and many other organizations to identify a person. As a result, consumers provide their SSNs to many companies and organizations, which can lead to them being victims if there is a data breach. An example of such a breach is the someone taxes before
