U.S. Internal Revenue Service

February 14, 2020

A Light at the End of Liberty Reserve’s Demise?

This post was originally published on this siteIn May 2013, the U.S. Justice Department seized Liberty Reserve, alleging the virtual currency service acted as a $6 billion financial hub for the cybercrime world. Prompted by assurances that the government would one day afford Liberty Reserve users a chance to reclaim any funds seized as part of the takedown, KrebsOnSecurity filed a claim shortly thereafter to see if and when this process might take place. This week, an investigator with the U.S. Internal Revenue service finally got in touch to discuss my claim. Federal officials charged that Liberty Reserve facilitated a […]
January 29, 2021

The Taxman Cometh for ID Theft Victims

This post was originally published on this siteThe unprecedented volume of unemployment insurance fraud witnessed in 2020 hasn’t abated, although news coverage of the issue has largely been pushed off the front pages by other events. But the ID theft problem is coming to the fore once again: Countless Americans will soon be receiving notices from state regulators saying they owe thousands of dollars in taxes on benefits they never received last year. One state’s experience offers a window into the potential scope of the problem. Hackers, identity thieves and overseas criminal rings stole over $11 billion in unemployment benefits […]
January 19, 2022

IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access

This post was originally published on this siteIf you created an online account to manage your tax records with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those login credentials will cease to work later this year. The agency says that by the summer of 2022, the only way to log in to irs.gov will be through ID.me, an online identity verification service that requires applicants to submit copies of bills and identity documents, as well as a live video feed of their faces via a mobile device. The IRS says it will require ID.me for all logins later this summer. McLean, […]
June 20, 2022

Why Paper Receipts are Money at the Drive-Thru

This post was originally published on this siteCheck out this handmade sign posted to the front door of a shuttered Jimmy John’s sandwich chain shop in Missouri last week. See if you can tell from the store owner’s message what happened. If you guessed that someone in the Jimmy John’s store might have fallen victim to a Business Email Compromise (BEC) or “CEO fraud” scheme — wherein the scammers impersonate company executives to steal money — you’d be in good company. In fact, that was my initial assumption when a reader in Missouri shared this photo after being turned away […]