Turbo Tax Puts Security Measures In Place
In the state of Georgia, people file between one and 1.2 million tax returns using TurboTax software. Unfortunately, in February, Georgia got over 50,000 returns that were found to be bogus. Although this number is a small fraction of the total returns, the state’s revenue commissioner has issued a warning.
Return filer Stevie Clark says she received 3 rejections on her federal, Alabama and Georgia returns that she filed using Turbo Tax. Now her account is better protected.
Clark states that the agencies locked her out of their systems because they do not recognize her computer. She elaborates that she needed those protections when a fraud perpetrator filed her returns. Clark, who is single, was told she had already filed as someone’s spouse.
The question is was there a breach of data through Turbo Tax, or was it part of the many problems that exposed the personal information of Clark and millions of other taxpayers?
Georgia ceased processing returns from TurboTax and began putting rules and regulations in place. Commissioner Lynne Riley says the state learned returns might be false, and so she and her staff developed some analytics to examine the returns closely.
For instance, big deductions, weird credits and questionable trends will red flag a return. Clark explains that protection from a techno-savvy generation of thieves is today’s reality. She says users of Turbo Tax should change passwords and log-ons on a regular basis.
TurboTax will now provide protection for ID and credit monitoring for the people who were affected by the fraudulent activity. It will also boost fraud countermeasures it already has in place. Anyone who goes into his or her Turbo Tax account or wishes to check the status of his or her tax refunds through TurboTax must do so by answering security and identity questions first.
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