@MACmiracle - I have USAA and have been very happy. They send alerts via text and I can just answer yes or no in response. They do seem to pick up suspicious activity pretty well (like when I spent over $100 in the morning and my husband spent over $100 at the same store in the evening).
They also give you your credit score when you sign into your online account on USAA. They notify me when money is deposited into my USAA account as well. So far I’m pretty happy with them.
Discover Card is great, too. I just received the following email message from them:
“Now we’ll monitor thousands of risky websites and alert you if we find your Social Security number. Plus, we’ll monitor your Experian® credit report every day and alert you when there’s a new credit card, mortgage, car loan or other accounts listed in your name. All for FREE.”
For may years I been called by sooooo many debt collectors on a person who has the same first, middle and last name as me. That has a large amount of student loans. She is 11 years older her SS and DL to not match mine. I show proof she is not me but they sell the debt down the line to someone. This has been going on for at least 6 years. It has never been reported to my credit report.
Actually “your refund” doesn’t matter. Fraudsters just use your id and make up W-2 withholdings, dependents, deductions and a new address to get their big fraudulent refund. When you file, you get a notice that your return has already been received.
Supposedly the IRS has a copy of your W-2 since the employer has to send one to you, and a copy to the IRS. Then why would a return be processed if the income reported doesn’t match the numbers and employer on the W2?
If someone uses a different address on their tax return than previously (and did not notify IRS about an address change), or has different dependents listed than before, that should be a red flag.
Quick question: if I’m going to proceed with the credit freeze action at all 5 credit agencies, do I need to do so for myself and my wife or is one of us enough?
@TiggerDad – you need to place a freeze for each of you since you have unique SSNs. Also for children.
Companies have until 1/31 to give you your W2, and many companies don’t make that deadline, and I think companies have even longer to report it to the IRS. So if you file a bogus return before the IRS gets a copy, they have nothing to compare it to.
There are lots of things the IRS can use to detect fraud. But the IRS is required by law to send out refunds within 30 days, so by the time they get around to verifying the information, the refunds have been sent. It’s not an easy problem to solve.
This article is a little old, but it outlines the problem pretty well:
I agree it doesn’t make sense for the IRS to not wave a red flag. The IRS knows exactly what I’ve filed for the past X years in terms of dependents. If the number triples all of a sudden, they should have an obligation to question the validity of the filing. The SSN number is a required part of the government system and they should have a responsibility for ensuring that identity fraud isn’t taking place within their systems. Might not be easy, but that shouldn’t be an excuse IMO.
Does the efile PIN protect you anyway? If thievesare also efiling and enter a dofferent PIN, would it be flagged?
Or at least flag it for review if there are several new changes for existing filers.
We have been e-filing for a while. We used to have to provide the AGI of the previous year’s tax return. Then a personal PIN.
When e-filing throug turbotax, we have to provide our DL numbers, too.
Was able to freeze at all agencies EXCEPT Equifax. What a crap…
The simplest way for the IRS to eliminate refund fraud is only to pay refunds to a checking or savings account associated with the filer’s ssn. Everyone would need a bank account, but with banks with no minimum balance and free checking it should be doable.
What’s to keep said scammer from opening a bank account with our SSN? I have a checking account with an online bank, never been in a branch. I’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to impersonate me with one of those.
Requiring a checking account would be discriminating. My D closed her checking account because they suddenly started charging fees and she cannot meet their minimum amount in account requirements. Her generation gets by with Venmo and other electronic transfer apps. I’m sure she will need an account when she gets a real job that requires direct deposit, but a lot of people are not W2 employees anymore…1099 subcontractors
@OHMomof2 Opening a bank account in person usually requires some form of government issued photo id. Even some online places may want a scan or photo of a drivers license. If the bank requires a physical address that they mail a pin or password to create an account, that provides some security. Scammers could steal that out of your mailbox, but that’s labor intensive and requires them to go to OH. If they try a physical address that doesn’t match your primary address in the various commercial databases which exist, that should raise a red flag. If your online bank does nothing at all to verify your identity when you create the account, that would make me nervous.
I think there are millions of brokerage accounts created online and they can have associated money market accounts. I have Vanguard accounts and have never been to a Vanguard office. Don’t think they even have offices in my area.
Consumers has a nice article about what else you may need to do to protect yourself: https://www.consumerreports.org/equifax/a-freeze-wont-help-with-all-equifax-breach-threats/
They point out that if you haven’t established an account with social security, someone else could do so in your name and, if you’re 62, claim your social security. It just gets more fun all the time.