Group items tagged

Reports say tax fraud victims have lost around US$15 million to cybercriminals since 2013. Fraudsters may come in many forms: - They can pretend to be an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent, who tricked their victims into paying thousands of dollars each through phone calls. Call recipients were threatened to pay up or get charged. - Some often used malware such as Trojan spyware, banking Trojans or remote access tools (RTAs) to gain access to potential victims' computers or bank accounts. - And the brazen ones present themselves as IRS agents and show up in your front door. Over the years, the attackers' means may have evolved but their goal remains the same, and that is to deceive victims into giving out their personal information, including Social Security numbers, banking information and other private details. Tax-related identity theft occurs when attackers uses your stolen Social Security number to file a fraudulent tax return early in the year. You may be unaware that you are already a victim until you try to file your taxes and discover that a return has been filed using your number.