With Tax Day – April 15 – having arrived for 2013, now is a good time to review the top tips every taxpayer should know about identity theft offered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the IRS Identity Protection Tips page available at http://www.irs.gov/uac/Identity-Protection-Tips. (more…)
Identity theft in general – and tax- or wage-related fraud in particular – has once again topped the list of complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the 13th consecutive year in the annual FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for January – December 2012. The report, which marks the first year the FTC received more than 2 million complaints overall, found that 369,132 complaints – or 18 percent – were related to identity theft, with more than 43 percent of those complaints related to tax- or wage-related fraud. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for 2012 is available at http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/reports/sentinel-annual-reports/sentinel-cy2012.pdf. (more…)
The number of identity fraud incidents increased by one million more consumers over the past year and the dollar amount stolen increased to a three-year high of $21 billion, according to the ‘2013 IDENTITY FRAUD REPORT: Data Breaches Becoming a Treasure Trove for Fraudsters’ from Javelin Strategy & Research. The report also explored the relationship between the compromise of personal information in a data breach and fraud incidence and found that nearly 1 in 4 data breach notification recipients became a victim of identity fraud. For more information, visit https://www.javelinstrategy.com/brochure/276. (more…)
When applicants in the United States apply for jobs, they usually undergo a background check using a disclosure and consent form required by law where they provide Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) such as name, date of birth, and Social Security number (“SSN”). What many job applicants and employers do not know is that certain U.S. background check firms “offshore” PII to foreign call centers and data processing locations beyond the protection of U.S. privacy and identity theft laws. However, many screening companies oppose the practice of “offshoring” out of concern that the practice provides little protection against identity theft and loss of privacy. The controversy over offshoring and employer concerns about the process is Trend Number 5 of the 6th Annual ‘ESR Top Ten Background Check Trends for 2013’ available at http://www.esrcheck.com/Top-Ten-Background-Check-Trends-for-2013.php. (more…)
With the arrival of ‘Black Friday’ and Cyber Monday,’ the first Friday and Monday after Thanksgiving, shoppers are ready for the official kickoff to the 2012 holiday shopping season. With research showing identity theft on the rise with help from social media and smart phones, shoppers need to protect their identities more than ever. For suggestions from The Hanover Insurance Group on how holiday shoppers can avoid identity theft, visit http://www.snl.com/irweblinkx/file.aspx?IID=103541&FID=15353223. (more…)
