(1) What Happened Equifax discovered a breach of personal and financial information on July 29, 2017. They hired security company Mandiant on August 2. The public wasn’t notified until September 9 when Equifax claims it finally understood the scope of the breach. Around 143 million Americans and in some cases, UK and Canadian residents, were affected. The private data that was exposed is crucial to people’s financial identities. Social security numbers, birth dates, and addresses were stolen, leaving those Americans vulnerable to identity theft. In some instances, driver’s license numbers were also stolen. And finally, the credit card numbers of approximately 209,000 people were a part of the breach.…
-
-
Don’t Let These Two Imposter Scams Fool You
The IRS Imposter Scam Calls from the IRS can be scary especially if the person on the other end of the line threatens to arrest if you if you do not immediately pay your unpaid taxes. This scam is on the IRS’ “Dirty Dozen” list which is a list of scams involving the IRS. Many of the other scams on the list are aimed at taxpayers who try to cheat the system, whether it’s hiding their money in off-shore tax shelters or falsely inflating refund claims. However, this one is aimed at scamming the taxpayer, not the IRS. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA),…