TaxSlayer, TaxAct Report Tax-Refund Fraud: What does this mean for you

TaxSlayer, TaxAct Report Tax-Refund Fraud: What does this mean for you -

We have already warned against the real dangers of fraud repayment of tax, which is one of the main causes behind a point of 47% of identity theft complaints to the FTC in the past year, and it seems that the thieves do not lose time to hit the tax service this year and make these justified warnings. Two of these services - TaxSlayer and TaxACT - reported security breaches that compromised customer data in the last two months. Also cause for concern was raised by a computer failure in the IRS Tuesday, February 3 which resulted in the service is unable to process the Internet tax returns submitted for almost a full day. While the convenience of showing your taxes online can not be denied, additional security risks also allow a risky business, like many people across the country are discovering. What can you do to protect yourself?

Customer data stolen TaxAct and TaxSlayer

In mid-January, TaxAct reported potential theft of customer data for about 450 clients. The service also froze the additional 9,000 client accounts due to suspicious activity while he studied. Notification letters sent to 450 clients said Social Security numbers and other personal information were probably stolen and their tax returns stored accessible by infiltrators.

In the wake of the TaxAct disclosure is a violation of the more important security reported by the depository TaxSlayer online. About 8,800 customers were informed in January 29th that criminals may have stolen their personal information and tax return. According TaxSlayer, this unauthorized access took place between 10 October 2015 and 21 December 2015. The company does not believe its own systems were violated; instead, he thinks that the criminals used information obtained elsewhere Auditors client access falsely.

It is quite possible that some of the information used in these two offenses came from the infiltration of "Get Transcript" IRS database in 2015 -. A break of security that affected more than 600,000 taxpayers

Different data breaches can be connected to each other

Unfortunately, due to security protocols lax through various companies and industries worldwide, data breaches have become common. All this information being stolen from databases often makes its way onto the black market on the Internet, where it is traded or sold and then used to either fake accounts opened in the names of people, produce fraudulent tax returns, etc. This means free movement of personal data is more important than ever to protect your information and take precautions as you possibly can to keep him safe. It's safe to assume if you were informed of your data involved in the breach of security, there is a chance he could be involved in one or more others.

There are many steps you can take to save you and your family, to freeze your credit files to sign for a protection service against identity theft. Unfortunately, tax refund fraud is an identity crime which can only be discovered after the fact rather than as it happens like fraud by credit card. If you discover your tax return has already been filed when you do your taxes this year, be sure to follow the steps in this post to report the crime.