Making sure you file your taxes properly isn’t your only concern this year. According to walletpop.com, identity theft has now impacted the tax world as well. Crooks who gain access to your social security number may use it to file your taxes in hopes of getting a refund if they can file before you do. How can they get away with it? Unfortunately the IRS systems aren’t sophisticated enough to flag a suspicious return. In examples cited in the walletpop article, the fraudulent filers didn’t even have correct employment history for the people they were impersonating. Yet the return was automatically processed by the IRS without incident until the real filer submitted their actual return and was notified of the double filing. Just further evidence that you must keep close tabs on your SSN. Consider using an identity theft protection agency that monitors access to your SSN.

lifehacker.com has a great post about the three ds of protecting yourself against identity theft - Deter, Detect, and Defend. Protecting yourself against fraud and credit abuse through identity theft is becoming more and more of a problem. I’ve covered identity theft protection in depth here on this site. Make sure you take a look there as well and you’ll find tons of tips and recommended services for combating this oncoming threat.

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The elderly are increasingly the primary targets for identity theft scams. The fastest growing crime in the U.S., identity theft is showing no signs of slowing down even as options for protection yourself increase. Four gang members in Fresno California were just arrested for elderly abuse and identity theft after scamming victims that included a 97 year old. The scammers generally contacted the victims by telephone, representing themselves as government officials requesting information such as social security numbers and family history. This reinforces many of the simple tips I’ve been sharing for years - protect your social security number, permanently destroy any sensitive garbage that may contain your personal information, store information in secure locations, and consider purchasing identity theft protection. Make sure you follow these steps and share them with older folks in your life, such as your parents. You could be saving them a ton of grief.