[TriLUG] OT: Security concern: H&R Block wanted my DL number to do my taxes

[Thomas Delrue via TriLUG]

Oh, I am not skeptical about the fraud, *that* I believe... I'm
skeptical about how asking DLs will prevent that fraud. The only
difference now is that that same guy will call and ask for the W-2's /as
well as the DLs/ because "I'm the IRS and as you may have heard, we need
that now".
The weak link is very frequently the human, not the process or the tech! :)

On 03/30/2017 06:45 PM, William Sutton wrote:
> I know a guy whose employer's HR department got scammed with "we need
> all of this year's W-2's.  Please email them to me."  And fell for it.
> Several of his co-workers filed their taxes only to discover that their
> refunds had already been issued.  My friend only files paper taxes :-)
> 
> William Sutton
> 
> On Thu, 30 Mar 2017, Thomas Delrue via TriLUG wrote:
> 
>> My tax attorney told me it's a new thing that the IRS is requiring "to
>> prevent fraud" (implying that it is to prevent your refund going to
>> someone else, which has indeed been a particular mechanism of fraud in
>> the last couple of years).
>> I believe the part about the IRS requiring it, I'm more sceptical about
>> the fraud part and specifically how it prevents the scam but then I'm on
>> the paranoid side of the spectrum so YMMV.
>>
>> On 03/30/2017 06:40 PM, Joseph Mack NA3T via TriLUG wrote:
>>> They've been doing my taxes for several years. This year I had to give
>>> them my DL number before they would do my taxes. This caught me
>>> unawares. I didn't think to ask what would happen if I refused. They
>>> just said "We're required to collect it". They didn't say who told them
>>> to collect it; the IRS, H&R Block...
>>
>>

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