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Fending Off Fraud Articles

Financial fraud protection requires diligence — know the red flags to look for.

Learn About Fending Off Fraud

Read these articles to learn about the latest scams and safety measures to protect your accounts from financial fraud.

All Budgeting and Goals Credit: Score and More Family Finances Fending Off Fraud Invest, Invest, Invest Paying Off Debt Personal Finance 101 Homeownership Retirement Filing Your Taxes Student Loans For Teens
Image for tile. Why Having the Latest is the Greatest: Update Your Browser Today We’ve got a secret weapon in the fight against the fraudsters who are trying to steal the data off your computer or mobile phone: having an up-to-date web browser. 2 min read
Pencil laying on 1040 tax form Staying Safe from Tax Scams We received the following very handy and timely article from the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) in regards to staying safe during this season of numbers crunching and record keeping for taxes. As always, if you have any specific tax questions, be sure to consult a tax prep professional. Watch out for these scams Unfortunately, much of your personal information can be gathered from multiple locations online with almost no verification that the right person is receiving the information. Criminals know this and use the information to file a fake tax refund request! If a criminal files a tax return in your name before you do, they will file it with false information to get a large refund, forcing you to go through the arduous process of proving that you did not file the return and subsequently correcting the return. Once they have your personal information, criminals can continue to commit identity theft well beyond the tax season. Another favorite technique used by criminals during the tax season is sending phishing messages indicating that a new copy of your tax form(s) is available. These emails often impersonate state, local, tribal, and territorial government comptroller or IT departments. If you fill out or attempt to login into the phishing website, the criminals will be able to see your login name and password, which they can then use to try and compromise your other accounts. The more information they gather from you, the easier it is for them to use the information to file a fake tax return in your name. Lastly, tax fraudsters also impersonate the IRS and other tax officials to threaten taxpayers with penalties if they do not make an immediate payment. It is important to remember: The IRS will not initiate contact about payment with taxpayers by phone, email, text messages, or social media without sending an official letter in the mail first. The IRS will not call to demand immediate payment over the phone using a specific payment method such as a debit/credit card, a prepaid card, a gift card, or a wire transfer. The IRS will not threaten to immediately notify local police or other law-enforcement agencies to have you arrested for not paying. 4 min read
lock and credit card Equifax Breach: FAQs and Resources A collection of helpful tips and FAQs in the wake of the Equifax breach. 3 min read
Image for tile. Hold That Line: Protect Yourself from Credit Card Fraud We asked our skilled team of fraud detection experts in the BankCard department for the best steps to follow if you receive an unexpected but somewhat convincing call about fraud on your card. 2 min read
Image for tile. 7 Tips to Help You Protect Your Identity To help protect you from fraudsters, we’ve compiled this list of handy tips. 4 min read

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