fraud
IRS National Consumer Protection Week
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation branch, the agency identified over $4.5 billion in tax-related fraud in fiscal year 2025. A lot of personal information is exchanged during tax season, making it a “gold mine” for hackers.…
Data Breaches and Social Security
A Complex Online World It’s a complex electronic world we live in today, with nearly all organizations transitioning rapidly to online services. We are often encouraged to do our banking, manage our investments, renew our licenses, and pay our monthly…
Saving Millions Won’t Solve a Trillion Dollar Problem
In this intriguing Morningstar article from Dow Jones, the Federal budget deficit is discussed in very realistic terms, while evaluating the more recent efforts to “eliminate waste and fraud” by the much maligned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The basis…
Keep Your Social Security Payments Safe
There are things you can do to protect your Social Security payments from being stolen. If you have a Direct Express Card or are being switched to one as your paper checks are being stopped, there are ways to protect…
The Importance of Placing a Credit Freeze on Your Social Security Number
Breaches into company records exposing your personal information, such as your birthday and Social Security number, are becoming a common event. If you put a Credit Freeze in place, it prevents your credit bureau files from being accessed by someone…
The next step in preventing fraud
In recent weeks, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the “Fraud Takedown” resulted in the prosecution of over 300 defendants who committed over $14.6 billion worth of fraud against the Medicare program. The Medicare program is…
103,000 Medicare Beneficiaries are getting new Medicare numbers
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have notified 103,000 Medicare beneficiaries that their personal information was used to create accounts on Medicare.gov. On May 2, 2025, the Medicare call center began receiving calls from beneficiaries who had received…
Social Security Numbers: A Key to Protecting Children from Scams
The root of the problem, when it comes to protecting young people from fraudsters and scammers, is education, pure and simple. With the Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting more than 18,000 victims under the age of 20 and losses totaling…
Fraud Warning from Social Security
Beware of fraud emails that resemble a legitimate government email giving you a link to download your Social Security statement. This email is an attempt to gain your personal information. WGCU Staff explains here… Notice: The link provided above connects readers…
Social Security’s New Anti-fraud Measures
Moving forward all Social Security claims made over the telephone will be subject to an “anti-fraud” check. Originally Social Security proposed cuts to phone services, but backlash from the public caused an modification to be made. Enhanced technology helps Social…