FTC: Tax-Related Identity Theft, IRS Impostor Scams Jump in 2014 - East Idaho News
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FTC: Tax-Related Identity Theft, IRS Impostor Scams Jump in 2014

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Thinkstock 012615 IDTheft?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1422305158628Bet_Noire/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Trade Commission reported on Monday that tax-related identity theft was the most common form of identity theft reported in 2014.

The agency said in a release that the number of complaints regarding criminals impersonating officials from the Internal Revenue Service was nearly 24 times what the agency received in 2013 — up tp 54,690 complaints from 2,545 the year before.

“We’ve seen an explosion of complaints about callers who claim to be IRS agents — but are not,” Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Jessica Rich said. “IRS employees won’t call out of the blue and threaten to have you arrested or demand specific methods of payment.”

In total, the FTC reported 332,646 complaints of identity theft in 2014 — including 109,063 tax-related identity theft complaints, nearly 33 percent of all identity theft complaints. Based on that data, 2014 was the fifth consecutive year in which tax-related complaints were the largest category of identity theft complaints.


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