Protect yourself from spammers and scammers this tax season

You’ve likely read or heard about the tax rebates the government plans to send most of you to stimulate the recessed economy. These are in addition to your normal tax rebate checks and should be issued sometime in May or June. However, you won’t get them until after you’ve filed your 2007 tax return.

Scammers have latched on to this rebate plan as yet another way to make a quick buck at your expense or worse yet, steal your identity. Already the IRS is warning people to be wary of very official looking notices that ask you for personal information which can be used to steal your identity, your money or both.

John W. Scherer, known to millions as the Video Professor, along with noted cyber crime expert and author Jayne Hitchcock, who wrote the book “Net Crimes and Misdemeanors,” both say this is an especially important time to be on guard.

“A quick check of the Internal Revenue Service web site warns of several scams happening right now,” says John W. Scherer. “These involve everything from phone calls offering you an early rebate to e-mails about refunds or audits. Each asks for personal information the IRS, as a matter of law, simply doesn’t ask.”

Hitchcock, who worked closely with Video Professor on its recently released Protect Yourself Online tutorial, offers these tips:

“It’s that time of year for paying your taxes and getting refunds, but be aware-the scam artists are out there on the Web. The IRS will never, ever contact you via e-mail about anything to do with your taxes. So, if you get an e-mail claiming to be from the IRS, delete it or report it for free to SpamCop at www.spamcop.net. Just remember, it’s not a scam until you fall for it. Until then, it’s just spam!”

Video Professor and Jayne Hitchcock offer more safety tips:
What To Do...If you took the bait and gave away your financial information:

Report it to the card issuer as quickly as possible: Many companies have toll-free numbers and 24-hour services to deal with such emergencies.

Cancel your account and open a new one.

Review your billing statements carefully after the incident. If it shows any unauthorized charges, send a letter to the card issuer describing each questionable charge.

Know your rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) for credit card loss or fraudulent charges: Your maximum liability under federal law for unauthorized use of your credit card is $50. If the loss involves your credit card number, but not the card itself, you have no liability for unauthorized use.

Report ATM or debit card loss or fraudulent transfers to your banking institution immediately: Your liability under federal law for unauthorized use of your ATM or debit card depends on how quickly you report the loss. You risk unlimited loss if you fail to report an unauthorized transfer within 60 days after your bank statement containing unauthorized use is mailed to you.

Report the theft to the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian®, Equifax® and TransUnion® and do the following: Request that they place a fraud alert and victim’s statement in your file; request a free copy of your credit report to check whether any accounts were opened without your consent; request that the agencies remove inquiries and/or fraudulent accounts stemming from the theft.

Equifax Credit Information Services - Consumer Fraud Division
P.O. Box 105496
Atlanta, Georgia 30348-5496
Tel: (888) 766-0008
www.equifax.com

Experian
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, Texas 75013-2104
Tel: (888) EXPERIAN (397-3742)
www.experian.com

TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Dept.
P.O. Box 390
Springfield, PA 19064-0390
Tel: (800) 680-7289
www.transunion.com

Notify your bank(s) and ask them to flag your account and contact you regarding any unusual activity. If bank accounts were set up without your consent, close them. If your ATM card was stolen, get a new card, account number and PIN.

Contact your local police department to file a criminal report.

Contact the Social Security Administration’s Fraud Hotline to report the unauthorized use of your personal identification information.

Notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of your identity theft and check to see whether an unauthorized license number has been issued in your name.

Notify the passport office to watch out for anyone ordering a passport in your name.

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm

File a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) http://www.ic3.gov/complaint

Document the names and phone numbers of everyone you speak to or contact regarding the incident. Follow up your phone calls with letters. Keep copies of all correspondence.

The FTC also advises:

If you get an e-mail or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply or click on the link in the message. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via e-mail. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization in the e-mail using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct web address. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link in the message.

Don’t e-mail personal or financial information. E-mail is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s web site, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a web site that begins with “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.

Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether there are any unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.

Use antivirus software and keep it up-to-date. Some phishing e-mails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge. Antivirus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. Antivirus software scans incoming communications for troublesome files. Looking for antivirus software that recognizes current viruses as well as older viruses can effectively reverse the damage and it updates automatically. A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It’s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Finally, your operating system, like Microsoft® Windows® or Linux®, may offer free software patches to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.

Be cautious about opening any attachments or downloading any files from e-mails you receive, regardless of who sent them.

Report suspicious activity to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If you get spam that is phishing for information, forward it to spam@uce.gov. If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft web site at www.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from ID theft. Visit www.ftc.gov/spam to learn other ways to avoid e-mail scams and deal with deceptive spam.

About Video Professor, Inc.
Based in Lakewood, Colo., VIDEO PROFESSOR has been the leader in comprehensive self-paced, computer software tutorials for more than 20 years. The core of VIDEO PROFESSOR’s learning initiative is to provide home users as well as corporate professionals with valuable and user-friendly learning solutions for today’s most common software titles. In addition to pioneering the future of easy-to-use online tutorials, VIDEO PROFESSOR currently ships over 250,000 CD-ROMs every month and has helped more than 8 million households learn the computer skills they need to remain competitive in today’s computer-driven marketplace. The complete VIDEO PROFESSOR library is also available online to stream directly to computers.

About Jayne Hitchcock
Jayne A. Hitchcock is a nationally recognized net crimes and security expert. She has helped pass laws related to online harassment in many states, including Maryland, Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Jayne also volunteers her time as a consultant on Internet crime cases for the U.S. Department of Justice victims of Crime, the National Center for Victims of Crime and police departments nationwide. http://www.haltabuse.org/jayne/index.shtml

Media Contact or to arrange a demo copy of Protect Yourself Online for review:
Brian Olson, Vice President of Public Affairs
Video Professor, Inc.
303-232-1244 Ext 380
bolson@videoprofessor.com