How to avoid tax fraud this tax season with the Better Business Bureau

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As if tax season wasn’t bad enough, there are scammers out there trying to commit tax fraud with your personal information.

Judy Dollison with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Central and Southeast Ohio has tips to reduce the risks of headaches when you go to file your taxes. The first step in committing tax fruad is to obtain personal information that is required to file taxes under your name. Dollison’s first piece of advice is to be wary of sharing personal information.

“Whether it’s your social security number, your driver’s license number, and the scammers start reaching out to you to kind of get this information and be able to commit tax fraud,” Dollison said. “So, it usually starts through a phishing scam or your data has been part of a data breach that has exposed your information. And, what happens is they will start filing under your name and get your tax returns.”

Another one of Dollison’s recommendations is going to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) website and creating an identity protection PIN, which creates an additional layer of protection for filing tax returns.

“So it’s like a two-factor authentication system. You can get that through the IRS and once you get that PIN number, you’ll have to use it every time you file a return, but it is that secondary safety that someone would have to know that information in addition to your social security number,” Dollison said. “We always say, ‘file your taxes as early as possible.’ It really prevents that oppportunity for a scammer to beat you to it and then when you file yours, you know, you end up finding out that they have already sent one in. ”

You can use the Better Business Bureau’s website at BBB.org to find reputable tax preparers and avoid preparers that could land you in trouble with the IRS.