Tax season is here and so are the cyber crooks. IRS plots are circulating, the latest one involving an authentic looking email from the IRS that states that you can get your tax refund on a Visa or a Mastercard. It asks for your credit card number, your social security number, credit card expiration dates, card verification value numbers, amount shown on your tax return, filing status and other personal information that might be helpful to them.
An example of the phishing email can be found on the IRS web site.
“After the last year’s calculations of your fiscal activity we’ve determined that you’re eligible to receive a tax refund of $78.87. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days to process it. Access the form for your tax refund by clicking here. – Regards, Internal Revenue Service.”
The IRS does not notify taxpayers of refunds, or any other payments that may be due, by email. Rather than click on the link in the message, you should forward the email to phishing@irs.gov, and erase the original from your email account.
IRS plots work one of two ways: con-men send out unsolicited e-mails that appear to come from the IRS and tell recipients that they have refunds coming to them. But first they need to click on e-mail links and provide needed information, which they will use to steal a victims identity.
The second version is an email that pretends to be from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division telling the recipient that they are under investigation for false tax returns. To learn more about the complaints against them, consumers click on the links which hold Trojan horse codes.
These codes take over computer hard drives and permit scammers to remotely access the computers and use them to send spam email among other things. If you ever do receive unsolicited emails from the IRS, they urge you to forward them the email.
Mallory Megan works for a debt collection agency. Also she writes articles on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.
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Commissioners on Monday postponed a decision to hire a collection agency because of unsettled ambulance bills acquired in unincorporated districts of Flagler County. Instead, county staff will do more research and the item will be returned to commissioners for review sometime in July.
Commissioner Alan Peterson said during the meeting that he wasn’t ready to sign at the dotted line in the piggyback contract alongside officials in Orange County because he first wanted to know how the collection agency does its business.
He wanted to know how commonly the agency calls residents about their delinquent accounts and what times of the day those calls were made. He also wished to know how many written notices would be sent to residents in arrears for their emergency medical care during an ambulance ride.
“My overriding concern on this whole issue is that unlike most bills people incur, this is an involuntary expense,” Peterson said. “People don’t normally choose to take an ambulance for medical care.”
Commissioner Barbara Revels said she also wanted to ensure the county wasn’t getting into business with a “heavy-handed” collection agency that could result in consumer backlash, like some that’s now being seen around the country.
Under the county’s current billing routines, insurance companies are billed for a patient who receives medical care and transport. If the patient is not insured or the insurance does not cover the full balance due, a third-party billing company steps in and attempts to collect the debt through written notices with the help of information verification from Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston’s office. The account is kept open and debt collection attempts continue for up to a year, at which time the debt is moved to a “bad debt” list and charged off by commissioners.
The debts are not placed on residents’ credit reports and quarrelsome telephone tactics are not used for collection.
Peterson also said if the board make the determination to move forward in hiring a collection agency, he’d like to see county officials add a new level of regular review to the accounts on its “bad debt” list before they’re turned over for collection.
“There should be a review of each and every account to see if it makes sense to turn it over to the collection agency,” Peterson said.
He requested county staff acquire the proposed collection agency’s procedures and has asked them to present an outline of the policy they will use for reviewing accounts before they’re turned over to the agency sometime before the end of July.
“We haven’t had a collection agency up to this point, so I don’t think it would hurt to delay the decision two weeks,” said County Administrator Craig Coffey.
Mallory is employed by a debt collection agency. She also writes articles on business and finance, and collections. .
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