February 3, 2020
by Seena Gressin
Attorney, Division of Consumer & Business Education, FTC
Ready for tax season? If you’re not ready for tax identity thieves and IRS imposters, you might not be. But breathe easy. Today is the start of Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, and we’ve got lots of easy ways to learn how to recognize scams and help protect yourself from fraud. Logo for Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week 2020
All this week, the FTC and its partners will host free events to share information about recognizing, avoiding and recovering from the scams and scammers that we see most often during tax season. We’ll ask things like:
How does tax identity theft happen?
How is it related to other types of identity theft?
If your personal information has been exposed in a data breach, are you at greater risk?
Can you lessen your chances of experiencing tax identity theft? And, if it happens, how do you recover?
For the basics, join us today for our kick-off event, a half-hour webinar hosted by the FTC and the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). Have questions? Call them in during either of two telephone-town hall meetings this Wednesday the 5th, co-hosted by AARP, the FTC, and the U.S. Treasury Department. Or, send them to us during Thursday, February 6th’s Twitter chat.
If you own or operate a small business, you’ll want to be sure to join us on Tuesday the 4th for Protecting Sensitive Business and Customer Information: Practical Data Security Practices for Your Business. Hear from the FTC and IRS about identity theft, the latest imposter scams targeting businesses, and creating a data security plan to protect your customers, employees, and your business. Ask questions, too. If you’re not able to view the webinar, we hope you’ll still listen in.
Find a calendar of all the week’s events and details on how to participate here. All the events are free and open to everyone. We hope you’ll join us!