24 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 15, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
tax tips
Tax season is also prime time for scammers
Don’t let scammers get a hold of your
personal information and hard-earned
tax refunds, the state Department of
Taxation and Finance warned.
“We’ve made tremendous strides in
our ability to uncover and deter tax
fraud even as it continues to proliferate,”
said Acting Tax Commissioner
Nonie Manion. “Scammers continually
adjust their tactics to circumvent the
defenses in place, though, so we must
all remain vigilant.”
In the wake of recent personal information
breaches, including the massive
Equifax breach where hundreds of millions
of identities were exposed, New
York State has taken specifi c action to
prevent the fraudulent use of taxpayers’
personal information by nefarious preparers
to fi le bogus refund claims.
By integrating predictive analytics
into its processing, auditing, and collections
systems, the Tax Department
is better able to fl ag these refund claims
and other suspicious tax fi lings for
greater scrutiny. Teams dedicated to
uncovering tax fraud and identity-theft
schemes bolster this eff ort.
Since 2003, the Tax Department has
used its evolving Case Identifi cation
and Selection System to pull questionable
tax returns and fraudulent refund
claims from the processing fl ow. Th e
system uses predictive analytics to
determine when to process a refund
request and when to set it aside for further
review.
However, as technology continues
to advance, cyber thieves and scammers
turn to more sophisticated methods
in their attempts to steal personal
information and defraud hardworking
New Yorkers. Th at’s why the Tax
Department and Division of Consumer
Protection track such schemes around
the country to prepare for the use of
these or similar tactics in New York and
take steps to educate the public.
In one new scheme, a fraudster uses
stolen information to fi le a return and
claim a refund, which is deposited into
the victim’s actual bank account. Th is
is followed by a call to the taxpayer
from the scam artist posing as an offi -
cial from a debt-collection agency. Th e
scammer says the money was deposited
in error, must be returned, and
instructs the victim on how to forward
the money.
Protect against fraud
Th e Tax Department and the IRS will
never make threats over the phone and
will never request personal or fi nancial
information by email.
Tax professionals are required to
protect their clients’ personal information
by only providing it to trusted
sources, such as the IRS and the Tax
Department. In addition, they must
securely shred documents that contain
private data before discarding.
For more information regarding
scam prevention and consumer education,
please contact the Division of
Consumer Protection Helpline at 518-
474-8583 or 800-697-1220.
From the NYS Department of
Taxation and Finance
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