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

[William Sutton via TriLUG]

Oh, I agree with you.  But if someone has a track record of filing via 
paper and snail mail, it is much easier to justify that "I didn't eFile 
that refund request."

William Sutton

On Thu, 30 Mar 2017, Thomas Delrue wrote:

> 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...
>>>
>>>
>
>