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Posted in Board Brief on Mar 16, 2022
We’re know the buying/selling housing market has been crazy. We've also seen plenty of scarey news items saying everyone is at risk of having their home stolen from under them by a crook who fraudulently forges their home title.
It's important to know it's being overhyped by companies selling Identity protection and Title Fraud protection.
This is a three-part series on what Title insurance is, what Title insurance protection is (and isn’t) and who is really at risk as far as homeownership and Title fraud is concerned.
What exactly is HomeTitle Insurance?
Title Insurance is a legitimate busine...
Posted in Board Brief on Feb 16, 2022
Why use an IRS IP Pin Number? IRS IP PINs are designed to make it more difficult for thieves to file false tax returns. If you use an IRS PIN, Identity thieves would need to know your Social Security number AND your IP PIN.
IRS IP PINs used by individual filers are only temporary. Each taxpayer’s IRS IP PIN lasts for a year. The following year, taxpayers will have to sign up for a new IP PIN that they will use when filing that year’s income tax returns.
How do I set up an Annual Number? If you have not used an IRS IP Pin, you can get one by logging onto the “Get an IP PIN” on the IRS website (...
Posted in Board Brief on Jan 19, 2022
Multiple data breaches from outside the tax system means cybercriminals have basic information on millions of Americans, such as names, Social Security numbers and addresses. The steps taken by the IRS since 2015 help protect against fraudulent tax filings that use this basic data.
As a result, identity thieves are looking to steal more detailed financial information to help provide a more realistic tax return to better impersonate legitimate taxpayers. Because they need more personal data, cyberthieves increasingly target tax professionals, human resource departments, businesses and other pla...
Posted in Board Brief on Dec 15, 2021
Depending upon the method you choose to be communicated to by your bank/CU institution, they will send you a notification. If they detect or suspect fraud, they will call you, send an email or tweet. However, when they do, they don't talk to you or engage you except to confirm the transactions or deny it.
If you deny it, you are asked to contact them at the number provided. This makes for one of the most difficult detections, because the majority of the time, it really is your financial institution alerting you as soon as they can.
If you made a purchase, respond by typing yes to the text stre...
Posted in Board Brief on Nov 17, 2021
Ever get on a retailer’s email list? The solicitations come every day and they are annoying.
The industry has a way of handling such emails or texts. It’s call, “Unsubscribe”. Like all useful tools, scammers find a way to make something good bad. In this case, they got your email or text from somewhere. They send you everyday (or every hour in some cases) spam that you just want to get rid of.
NO! Don't Do It! So, you go to the bottom of your email and click on the Unsubscribe link. It takes you to a website where you enter your email and click submit. And for your trouble, malware is download...