TDCI Warns Consumers About New Twist on Tax Refund Scam

Nashville, TN – With tax filing season underway, the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance’s (TDCI) Division of Consumer Affairs is sharing a warning from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that cautions consumers about a new scam tactic involving erroneous tax refund deposits.

According to the IRS, the scam began with cyber criminals employing malware to mine client data from tax professionals’ computers.

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Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Securities Division Issues Cybersecurity Alert to Investment Adviser Firms

Nashville, TN – Amidst increasing reports of the prevalence of malicious ransomware infecting unsuspecting computer users throughout North America, the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance’s (TDCI) Securities Division has issued an alert to raise awareness among investment adviser firms of this ever-growing cybersecurity threat.

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IRS shows you How to Check on Your Refund

Washington, D.C. – With the April 15th tax filing deadline approaching, the Internal Revenue Service created a new YouTube video to provide taxpayers more details and tips to check on their tax refund.

The new video How to Use the Where’s My Refund? Tool offers in-depth information about how the redesigned “Where’s My Refund” tool on IRS.gov works.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WrZR2qc-3g[/youtube] [Read more]

Consumer Reports Provides Tips on How to Avoid Getting Burned By the Latest High-Tech Scams

Yonkers, NY – It’s easier than ever to get burned these days—in fact fraud and identity-theft complaints tracked by the Federal Trade Commission topped 1.2 million last year, up 19 percent from 2010 and a whopping 800 percent since 2000. And the fraud artists are using new channels and technology that didn’t exist 15 years ago including social media, pop-up ads on your computer, and text-message “smishing” scams.

According to Consumer Reports’ investigation, available on www.ConsumerReports.org on August 30th and in the October issue of Consumer Reports on newsstands September 4th, two other factors compound this problem. [Read more]

75 Percent of Americans Don’t Use the Strongest Kind of Passwords for Their Most Sensitive Accounts

People who use the same password for many accounts take a big risk

Yonkers, NY – Strong passwords should contain at least eight characters and have a combination of upper and lowercase letters, a numeral and a special character.

According to Consumer Reports’ new survey, three-quarters of Americans don’t protect their most sensitive accounts with a strong enough password, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by hackers. [Read more]

7.5 Million Facebook Users are under the age of 13, violating the Site’s Terms

Use of Social Media Increases Threat to Personal Security
Annual State of the Net Survey Also Found that Around $2.3 Billion Lost to Malware

Yonkers, NY – Of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year, 7.5 million of them were younger than 13, according to projections from Consumer Reports’ latest State of the Net survey. Facebook’s terms of service require users to be at least 13 years old.

Also among this group of minors using Facebook, more than 5 million were 10 and under. Consumer Reports survey found that their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents, exposing them to malware or serious threats such as predators or bullies. The report on Internet security, which includes the full survey results and advice for parents of Facebook users, is featured in the June issue of Consumer Reports and on www.ConsumerReports.org. [Read more]