Prevent Tax Fraud with id.me and an IP PIN from the IRS!

 

Hello, Bryan Herbstritt here with Fidelitech Solutions, your local trusted IT Services and Cyber Security Partner.

Today’s Tech Tips Tuesday, tip of the day is “Prevent Tax Fraud with id.me and an IP PIN from the IRS!”

 You are working with your federal tax preparer or Certified Public Accountant and are ready to submit your tax documents to the IRS for your heavily anticipated return and BAM, it is rejected.  Your taxes for the last year have supposedly already been filed.  But How? 

You do not have to have an id.me or IP PIN set up with the IRS in order to file taxes securely.  Simply a bad actor submitted taxes on your behalf with the ACH return going to one of their own bank accounts.  These types of bad actors especially prey on people filing delayed tax returns.  CPA firms and individuals’ personal identities are stolen often through malware and keyloggers.  They will often file the returns based on the information stolen months before the person or preparer files the tax documents.

Setting up an id.me and IP PIN with the IRS is pretty straight forward.

First, we recommend you set up and secure your id.me account.  This is done by opening your web browser and navigating to id.me, selecting “Sign in”, and then selecting the “Create an ID.me account” option.  From here enter in your desired email address and complex password.  Your password must contain both a lower and uppercase letter, a number, and be at least 8 characters in length.  In order to make it complex we recommend adding a symbol as well.  Such as a percent, star, dollar, or pound symbol.  After creating the account you will have to verify your ownership of the email address by entering a code and submitting it. After verifying your account return back to id.me and sign in with your new credentials.  After signing in we recommend you also lock down your new account with two or more multi-factor authentication methods.  Select “Sign In & Security” and then select the “Set Up” button next to your desired two or more methods in the list.

Now that your id.me account is setup and secured with two or more multi-factor authentication methods you are ready to request your Identity Protection PIN from the IRS, also simply referred to as an IP PIN.

In your search engine of choice search for the term, “IP PIN”, and look for what is typically the top result, www.irs.gov identity-theft-fraud-scams > get-an-identity-protection-pin which takes you to the formal site: https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin. From there scroll down and select “Get an IP PIN” and then select “Sign in with ID.me” and login using your newly created credentials.  As you may have noticed you could have created the id.me account from here but I recommend doing the creation directly on the id.me site and logging beforehand to be sure you have secured id.me by setting up the multi-factor options as well.  Accept the ID.me and IRS terms and conditions and then authenticate your session.  After authentication you will be able to verify your identity using one of two options “Self-Service” or “Video Call”.  This will identify your identity and attach it permanently to the ID.me account using your driver’s license, State ID, passport, passport card, SSN, and capture a selfie.  From here follow the prompts and once fully verified and vetted you will be provided the IP PIN that you will want to securely document and save in a safe place such as a safe.

If you have questions about cyber security or some other, IT-related issues for your business? Go to https://www.Fidelitech.net/discoverycall to book a quick, 10-minute call.

For a free security assessment, schedule an appointment at https://www.fidelitech.net/semperarmor.

 

#cybersecurity #IPPIN #taxfraudprevention #ITconsultants #ITSupport #idme #UtahNetworkSecurity #SaltLakeCityNetworkSecurity