3 Major Credit Agencies

In this coming fiscal period, there may be an increase in the submission of forged fiscal declarations using a victim's name and social security number to divert a refund to the fraud banker. The IRS has taken pro-active measures to try to minimise the smuggling of taxpayers' identities. Unfortunately, privacy violations, as well as stealing and disclosing personally identifiable information, will occur almost every day.

Originally reports said that the Equifax disaster has caused great concern among some 143 million Americans with any kind of credit rating. The Equifax solution manages extensive personally identifiable information about the credit history of tens of millions as well as social security numbers and other critical information that is invaluable to ID thieves. Equifax's credit history is a collection of information that can be used by individuals to identify their credit history.

Equifax's break has triggered an epidemic alert that requires an individual to be proactive in protecting their personally identifiable information. Former CEO Richard Smith, who resigned in September, said "human and technological failure" were the main causes of the violation. Legislators indicated that they could do little about penalties or financial penalties as long as Equifax respected applicable laws, and it is anticipated that several officials will adopt laws that will further penalise credit bureaus for disclosing consumers' personally identifiable information.

One worrying feature of this violation is the period between emergence and discovery, not to speak of the apparent inadequacy, as it has been alleged that certain important senior managers were selling stock before the act was made publicly available. Regarding the figures, Equifax has issued a warning that in fact credit cards numbers of approximately 209,000 US clients and extra personal information records for approximately 182,000 other Americans and persons in the UK and Canada have been compromised by an attacker (as compared to the 143 million exposures).

Given the scale of the injury, there are immediate measures you can take to help yourself. In a first stage, if you have not already done so, you may link to the Equifax website to see if your personally identifiable information may be at risk. You may be advised not to take this action and just expect to be one of them because the injury affected thousands of people.

Think about introducing a safety stop on your creditworthiness at any credit assessment institution. This blocks your creditworthiness and does not allow anyone to gain insight into your data. Your ID cannot be taken during the freezing process because any use of your personally identifiable information will go wrong. If you do not activate your credit services, no one (including you) can use your information when you take out a credit or apply for a credit or debit.

Freezing your credit is available on the TransUnion website or at 1,800,685. 3742; and the Equifax website or 1,800,349,9960. You should consider introducing two-factor authentication, if not already in place, for all relevant Web sites and apps, particularly those that contain your personally identifiable information or that require registration. Often supervise your banking and credit cards account.

Initially and perhaps as standard business practices, we suggest that you monitor your banking and credit cards once a week, if not every day. A lot of businesses provide a text or e-mail notification feature to let you know when a withdrawal or credit line debit is above a certain threshold. They can also provide you with day-to-day reporting on your pecuniary activities.

Pay attention to small but unsuspicious debits on your credit cards. Crooks may demand small sums to see if the accountholders are aware of this, and if not, they will still use the credit as before. Ask for free photocopies of your credit reports at least once a year, if not more often, and immediately deny all false activities.

Register for Equifax's free TrustedID Credit Surveillance Services, which include credit surveillance in all three major credit bureaux and free copy of Equifax credit report information. If someone tries to defraud you on your behalf, this alert will notify you, for example, when you apply for a new credit or debit line.

While this is a courageous effort to protect, it is the least you can do, because by the point where you are alerted, your credit card may have been compromised, resulting in loss to your credit card records that can take up to weeks, if not even millions, to reverse. Although the above can help mitigate the risk of ID thievery, be very careful with e-mails, phone conversations, or text messaging related to the Equifax violation as there are reported cases of phone tagging by scammers providing security as well.

As more and more personally identifiable information is compromised by Equifax and other violations, the defense of the IRS continues to be challenged. In this coming fiscal period, there may be an increase in the submission of forged fiscal declarations using a victim's name and social security number to divert a refund to the fraud banker. The IRS has taken pro-active measures to try to minimise the smuggling of taxpayers' identities.

By the end of February, for example, the employer had until the end of February to send W-2 printed documents or until 31 March to send the documents to the Social Insurance Institution by electronic means. In this year, according to the Protection Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act, companies must complete W-2 submissions by January 31st.

Our customers are strongly encouraged to submit their income taxes early as swindlers will still try to use stole social security numbers to submit income taxes on behalf of others to redirect income taxes to their bankers. Early submission may reduce the likelihood of taxpayer ID fraud, as offenders may not have enough elapsed window of opportunity to collect the necessary information to submit a compelling false income statement.

More information on fiscal ID fraud can be found in our prior alert, which discusses further actions you can take to help avoid various types of ID fraud. Are they filing income taxes? Surely they have social security numbers. Luckily, as they often do not have credit records, their social security numbers are unlikely to have been jeopardized by the Equifax violation.

Indeed, the former CEO of Equifax indicated in his statement to Congress that there were no known small casualties of the violation. Identification criminals can, however, begin by establishing a credit record for children by making credit requests when a very young infant is. Three credit bureaus prepare a credit application at the parents' option (sometimes for a small fee), even if there is no historical record, and once prepared, the parental can immediately suspend the application as explained above.

However, please be aware that this can be a tricky procedure that may involve email communication (as there is no on-line credit history for the child). After all, be cautious when asked to give the child's social security number. Only if the common computer and email reporting hacks were bogus messages. Equifax Breaking leads to an unparalleled standard of chopping, similar to a Class 5 catastrophic event in the cyber world.

If a credit bureau that gathers and preserves your privacy cannot safeguard your personally identifiable information, who can? While the IRS (and others, embracing corporations and governments ) are taking action to help tax payers, it is becoming increasingly clear that individual citizens need to be productive and accurately track their finances now more than ever.