And even more woes for Intuit and Turbotax

[audreyh1]

Wow. If that can be documented and supported TT is in for a rough time.

Read the discussion in the comments. How responsible is Turbotax for detecting, reporting and preventing tax fraud? After all, they are only providing a service and not committing the fraud themselves. A big gray area there!!!! especially for a for-profit corporation. It's instructive to read the article and discussion.

 

[Brat]

Ah but IRS could refuse to accept their e-filed returns.

 

[MichaelB]

Read the discussion in the comments. How responsible is Turbotax for detecting, reporting and preventing tax fraud? After all, they are only providing a service and not committing the fraud themselves. A big gray area there!!!! especially for a for-profit corporation. It's instructive to read the article and discussion.

I did. We'll see how this evolves.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I'm still waiting for the 1099-B and DIV from the ETF's in DW's Vanguard brokerage account, should be available before the end of the month. Normally I would not be concerned in the least, but now I've got the added possibility of coming to file my Federal or State return and finding out that a filing has already been made

I'm really surprised how long it takes to get the 1099-DIV from Vanguard brokerage. Still not available. Sure delays the ability to complete the filing. I guess there must be good reason but it's frustrating. First they said Feb 18th. Now it says Feb 24th. We will see.


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[LoneAspen]

Thanks for the links. Hopefully we will find out that the bad people are caught and punished, and our personal information is safe with all of the entities who have promised to do so.

Assuming these fraudsters are found, tried, and convicted, they should be taken out back of the courthouse and shot in the back of the head.

And no, I'm not joking.

I have zero sympathy or compassion for anybody who would try to steal from, and provide so much heartache for, so many people as to steal their identity and make their life a living hell.

I think the world would be a much better place if these "white collar" criminals were treated like the scum they are. Execute them, and dump their corpses in the landfill.

Can you tell I have ZERO sympathy for them?

Getting off my soapbox now...

 

[audreyh1]

I did. We'll see how this evolves.

Not sounding like a trustworthy company to do business with, are they? We never did our taxes online, but with their corporate culture they sure look like a sitting duck for hackers to embed malware in their software you download or numerous other nasty shenanigans.

We are going to use temporary passwords when working through them to download tax form data.

I still don't think we actually have a Turbotax "account".

 

[MichaelB]

We are going to use temporary passwords when working through them to download tax form data.

I still don't think we actually have a Turbotax "account".

I've only downloaded data to prepare tax returns a few times, and I think I'm going to start doing it manually once again. It would be very helpful if brokers and banks developed "one use only" temporary userids for that purpose.

Your comment on having a TT "account" made me think. We have one, which TT requires just to purchase the yearly SW. Not nearly the same info as the online tax return, but it is an account. My kids all have accounts, at one time it was the only way to get a "free file". I guess these accounts are "forever", there's no way to delete or remove the information. Who remembers what email address or password was used to set them up. A bit scary, eh?

 

[Spanky]

Assuming these fraudsters are found, tried, and convicted, they should be taken out back of the courthouse and shot in the back of the head.

And no, I'm not joking.

I have zero sympathy or compassion for anybody who would try to steal from, and provide so much heartache for, so many people as to steal their identity and make their life a living hell.

I think the world would be a much better place if these "white collar" criminals were treated like the scum they are. Execute them, and dump their corpses in the landfill.

Can you tell I have ZERO sympathy for them?

Getting off my soapbox now...

I hear you .. but punishment for cyber crime, if ever caught or convicted, is not that severe, e.g., up to a year or two of imprisonment. The most severe punishment is trying to gain access to a government protected system which may result in imprisonment for 10 years and a heavy fine.

 

[2B]

In reality there seem to be a large number of working poor with no bank accounts. Don't know why this persists. Perhaps that minimal balance is still too much of a hurdle.

Banks deselect people with small accounts although credit unions don't seem to have much of a problem with them. The other issue are fees people with low balances get hit with either for the account itself or overdraft charges. People eventually give up their accounts because they lack the discipline to not spend more than what is in their account.

Issuing wages on pre-paid debit cards (used to be cash) has becomes popular. And then there are all those payday loan places - shudder!!

This is another evil. These cards frequently come with "handling charges" that further reduce low wage earners spendable income.

 

[audreyh1]

I've only downloaded data to prepare tax returns a few times, and I think I'm going to start doing it manually once again. It would be very helpful if brokers and banks developed "one use only" temporary userids for that purpose.

Your comment on having a TT "account" made me think. We have one, which TT requires just to purchase the yearly SW. Not nearly the same info as the online tax return, but it is an account. My kids all have accounts, at one time it was the only way to get a "free file". I guess these accounts are "forever", there's no way to delete or remove the information. Who remembers what email address or password was used to set them up. A bit scary, eh?

The info they have from us for purchasing TT is minimal compared to online filing.

 

[Mulligan]

Assuming these fraudsters are found, tried, and convicted, they should be taken out back of the courthouse and shot in the back of the head.

And no, I'm not joking.

I have zero sympathy or compassion for anybody who would try to steal from, and provide so much heartache for, so many people as to steal their identity and make their life a living hell.

I think the world would be a much better place if these "white collar" criminals were treated like the scum they are. Execute them, and dump their corpses in the landfill.

Can you tell I have ZERO sympathy for them?

Getting off my soapbox now...

Ah, we are a few of the last roaming dinosaurs on earth, soon to be extinct....


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[target2019]

The info they have from us for purchasing TT is minimal compared to online filing.

Minimal information can be as valuable to a criminal as all of your online filing data. We might think of the blobs as being in separate cache, and separate from other stores, but from experience we know the criminal elements are assembling disparate data for the mother-of-all-security intrusions.

 

[target2019]

Assuming these fraudsters are found, tried, and convicted, they should be taken out back of the courthouse and shot in the back of the head.

And no, I'm not joking.

I have zero sympathy or compassion for anybody who would try to steal from, and provide so much heartache for, so many people as to steal their identity and make their life a living hell.

I think the world would be a much better place if these "white collar" criminals were treated like the scum they are. Execute them, and dump their corpses in the landfill.

Can you tell I have ZERO sympathy for them?

Getting off my soapbox now...

Likewise.

And I suggest that another way to minimize damage is to punish the companies that play very loosely with your data.

 

[target2019]

I've only downloaded data to prepare tax returns a few times, and I think I'm going to start doing it manually once again. It would be very helpful if brokers and banks developed "one use only" temporary userids for that purpose.

Your comment on having a TT "account" made me think. We have one, which TT requires just to purchase the yearly SW. Not nearly the same info as the online tax return, but it is an account. My kids all have accounts, at one time it was the only way to get a "free file". I guess these accounts are "forever", there's no way to delete or remove the information. Who remembers what email address or password was used to set them up. A bit scary, eh?

I have a pretty good record of the multitude of email accounts and userid's used throughout the years. It doesn't help to have so many.

Just need to add Intuit to your list of suspects. While all this was blowing up, I received quite a few marketing emails from Intuit. Clicked on unsubscribe, did a dance, and so on. They just continued. I had to reply to abuse address, get an admin, and on and on. They kept telling me how easy it was to opt out by logging into their website. LOL--they try to get me to login and opt out of what I never agreed to!

I have no doubt that even if you could get them to delete your account, they do not have 100% audit of all the locations within their data vaults which hold your account data. It may get deleted in 2 places, but remain in another 6 or 7.

 

[GTFan]

Why So Many Americans Don't Have Bank Accounts | TIME.com

U.S. Lags G-7 in Bank Accounts as Poor Can't Build Assets - Bloomberg Business

The really sad part is that it's very easy in most areas now to open a credit union account, which are generally free with low minimum opening deposits. Tons of people just ignore them and think they have to bank at some brand name.

 

[samclem]

It's incredibly easy to open a bank or CU account with very little money. The min balance requirement is not what stops some people from having accounts.
They either don't have legitimate ID (e.g. they are here illegally), they are engaged in economic activity that they would prefer to remain below the radar, they are wanted by authorities and do not want to present ID to a bank official, or they just see no reason to have an account.

I'm in favor of giving them a reason to have an account.

 

[JoeWras]

I'm really surprised how long it takes to get the 1099-DIV from Vanguard brokerage. Still not available. Sure delays the ability to complete the filing. I guess there must be good reason but it's frustrating. First they said Feb 18th. Now it says Feb 24th. We will see.


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If they get it right, then OK.

For the last 5 years, I get my E*Trade this week. (Just got this year's yesterday.)

And for the last 5 years, I've gotten at least 2 amended 1099's, the last being in the first week of April.

So now I wait until April 10th to press the button.

 

[audreyh1]

Minimal information can be as valuable to a criminal as all of your online filing data. We might think of the blobs as being in separate cache, and separate from other stores, but from experience we know the criminal elements are assembling disparate data for the mother-of-all-security intrusions.

It's no different that what any other vendor has on us, so makes no difference.

 

[MuirWannabe]

If they get it right, then OK.



For the last 5 years, I get my E*Trade this week. (Just got this year's yesterday.)



And for the last 5 years, I've gotten at least 2 amended 1099's, the last being in the first week of April.



So now I wait until April 10th to press the button.

Just checked again and now it's moved to Feb 27th.


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[target2019]

It's no different that what any other vendor has on us, so makes no difference.

Actually, Intuit's access to my data is different than my bank, Vanguard, etc.

There are probably no two businesses with the same array of security measures, policies, data store, and so on.

The attack vectors are different, the internal response, and just about every other variable I can think of that's germane to security is handled differently depending on the organization.

Data is being pieced together in ways not previously possible. All types of actors bad and good are knocking.

But you are free to believe what you want.

 

[pb4uski]

There are a lot of tax payers who don't have bank accounts. They have to be accommodated somehow.

Let's think about this a little. What did they do in the old days when the IRS sent them a check?

I think any bank in the nation will cash a U.S. government check.

Plus, if you sent them a check any fraudsters could be charged with mail fraud.

 

[audreyh1]

Let's think about this a little. What did they do in the old days when the IRS sent them a check?

I think any bank in the nation will cash a U.S. government check.

Plus, if you sent them a check any fraudsters could be charged with mail fraud.

Some of the anti-fraud suggestions were to no longer issue checks but only allow direct deposit in a bank account!