Identity Theft

It’s Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week – a terrific time to get up to date on protecting yourself from identity thieves who try to claim your tax refund and imposters who pretend they’re from the IRS to get your money. Come to one of the two telephone town hall meetings happening on Thursday, January 31 – one at 10 a.m. ET and another at 1 p.m. ET. Experts from the FTC, AARP, and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration will talk about tax identity theft and more.

Marriott International says that a breach of its Starwood guest reservation database exposed the personal information of up to 500 million people. If your information was exposed, there are steps you can take to help guard against its misuse.

If you get a call that looks like it’s from the Social Security Administration (SSA), think twice. Scammers are spoofing SSA’s 1-800 customer service number to try to get your personal information. Spoofing means that scammers can call from anywhere, but they make your caller ID show a different number – often one that looks legit. Here are few things you should know about these so-called SSA calls.

September 15^th marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month —a time to celebrate the heritage, cultures and contributions of all Latino and Hispanic Americans in the U.S. For us at the FTC, it is a reminder of our continued commitment to protect all consumers in every community. For me, it is a reminder of the work that my colleagues and I do to ensure that many of these resources are available to Spanish speakers.