Will Equifax Breach Open Door to Tax Scammers?
Will Equifax Breach Open Door to Tax Scammers?
The tax season is always ripe with challenges, not the least of which is dealing with another wave of tax scams. Scammers are constantly looking for newer and more deceptive ways to steal your hard-earned money, including your tax refund.
Although, the tax-filing season is still a few months away, there is already a new threat emerging, thanks to the massive data breach that affected nearly half of all taxpayers in the country. Hackers were able to find a breach in Equifax’s security and steal the private information of about 143 million U.S. adults.
What does that mean for taxes? Now that this information is available on the dark web, the chances of your tax refund being hijacked have greatly increased. So what’s the number one thing you can do about it?
Of course, you need to keep a vigilant eye on your credit score and accounts, but you also need to be prepared to file your tax return as early as possible. That’s because if you file your return before a scammer does, they can’t file it for you and steal your refund.
While the IRS and the FTC always recommend filing your taxes early, this coming tax season it will be even more important. According to the FTC, taxpayers should file “as soon as you have the tax information you need, before a scammer can.”
That means you should start preparing now so you’re ready when tax season begins.
We hope you found this article about “Will Equifax Breach Open Door to Tax Scammers?” helpful. If you have questions or need expert tax or family office advice that’s refreshingly objective (we never sell investments), please contact us or visit our Family office page or our website at www.GROCO.com. Unfortunately, we no longer give advice to other tax professionals gratis.
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Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com. GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.
Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio
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The American Dreams show was the brainchild of Alan Olsen, CPA, MBA. It was originally created to fill a specific need; often inexperienced entrepreneurs lacked basic information about raising capital and how to successfully start a business.
Alan sincerely wanted to respond to the many requests from aspiring entrepreneurs asking for the information and introductions they needed. But he had to find a way to help in which his venture capital clients and friends would not mind.
The American Dreams show became the solution, first as a radio show and now with YouTube videos as well. Always respectful of interview guest’s time, he’s able to give access to individuals information and inspiration previously inaccessible to the first-time entrepreneurs who need it most.
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Adeel Malik | CEO of Clearstep
While studying finance and neurobiology in undergrad, Adeel spent his time doing neuro-immunology research at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, contributing to several academic publications. After undergrad, Adeel was a strategy & analytics consultant with Accenture for several years where he worked with some of the largest institutions in healthcare across pharma, health tech, health systems, and retail clinics. Adeel’s skills in healthcare analytics, operations, sales, and his breadth of experience
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