The Internal Revenue Service issued a warning about a fraudulent scheme targeting taxpayers who use the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System to pay federal taxes electronically online or on the phone.

Victims receive an email saying their tax payment was rejected and are told to visit a website for additional information. The website contains malware that is designed to infect your computer.

The IRS says it will never send emails about your account. If you receive a suspicious e-mail or an e-mail from someone claiming to be from the IRS directing you to website for additional information, never reply to the sender, access links on the site or submit any information to them. Send the e-mail or URL information to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.

More information about phishing is available on the IRS.gov web site. To verify the IRS is trying to contact you, call the IRS toll-free number, 800-829-1040.

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According to the Associated Press, a federal judge approved a settlement between Countrywide Financial Corp. and millions of customers who were victims of the bank’s security breach.

Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, agreed to offer free credit monitoring for up to 17 million people whose financial information was exposed. Anyone who obtained a mortgage and anyone who used Countrywide to service a mortgage before July 1, 2008 will qualify for this service.

Victims could be reimbursed up to $50,000 for each time their identity was stolen. They would have to prove they lost something of value, weren’t already reimbursed and that the theft was a result of the Countrywide breach.

A group of about 3,000 people affected by the identity theft objected to or opted out of the settlement, saying two years of credit monitoring isn’t enough or that the settlement didn’t do enough to make amends.

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New Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) research shows that 87 percent of consumers who have made a purchase or bank transaction online in the past month are concerned about the safety of the personal identifying and financial information they provide online.

The findings are part of the ITRC’s 2010 national survey to monitor trends in “Consumer Concerns about Internet Transactions.” The survey queried 500 respondents who had used the Internet for banking or purchasing during the previous 30 days.

The ITRC survey found consumers are increasingly concerned about the security of their personal and financial information when conducting transactions online. Eighty seven percent of respondents expressed significant concern about having their credit card information stolen or having merchants lose personal and financial information in a data breach.

Respondents demonstrated a similar high-level of concern over specific security events:
• 81 percent of respondents cited phishing emails as a significant concern;
• 80 percent of respondents expressed significant concern over having their passwords stolen;
• 78 percent of respondents indicated they were significantly concerned over having usernames stolen;
• 77 percent of respondents were concerned about receiving SPAM emails.

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According to News 14, a new study by Javelin Strategy and Research shows college students are at a high risk for identity theft. And the thieves are often their friends and roommates.

The study showed that more than 11 million people fell victim to identity theft in 2009, and young adults took the longest to notice. They lost an average of $1,100 as a result of the crimes.

“We’ve seen it for 10 years now. The highest incidents of identity theft are from people you know,” said Better Business Bureau President Tom Bartholomy.

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According to the Charlotte Observer, a new identity theft scam targeting Facebook users could result in identity theft. Scammers are spreading the word that a new ‘dislike’ button is available and encouraging users to download it. However, there is no legitimate “dislike” button. If users install, they are opening themselves up to malware and spyware.

The Better Business Bureau issued a warning this morning, telling users to ignore any “dislike” button requests.

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According to the Press Citizen, a man was arrested on three felony charges for allegedly running up $207,000 in hospital bills over seven years using someone else’s identity. Eric Noël Agapito-Moreno allegedly used the identity of Bill Chavez while he obtained medical treatment and services at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics from March 12, 2003, to Aug. 10, 2010, according to UI police.

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Identity theft can have an immediate, large, and long-lasting impact to your credit history, and to your peace of mind. Fortunately, you can prevent this vicious cycle with identity protection and credit monitoring. IDEssentials from TrustedID offers credit monitoring to help safeguard your credit along with comprehensive, proactive identity theft protection.

Three-bureau credit monitoring gives you a comprehensive view of your credit report and score, and alerts you when anything changes. If you spot any potential fraud, you can call a live, trained TrustedID agent who will help you resolve the incident quickly and minimize the damage.

Get more information on how the unique combination of identity protection and credit monitoring can fully protect your identity and name on TrustedID’s IDEssentials page.

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According to Information Week, Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), an advocate for identity theft protection, has proposed that the Social Security Administration and Department of Justice create a tool for credit issuers to determine if a Social security number belongs to a child.

“The credit issuers currently are blind, they have no way of knowing which year the social security number was issued, but even that wouldn’t help, because it could have just been issued to a 40-year-old person who just got citizenship,” said Linda Foley, co-executive director of the ITRC.

The “Minors 17-10 Database,” proposed by the ITRC, would contain the name, social security number, and month and year of birth for every child, between birth to the age of 17 years and 10 months. The list’s purpose would be very specific: “so a credit reporting agency could tell an agency, such as Chase, that the social security number belongs to a minor,” said Foley. Because minors cannot legally sign contracts, any such application would have to be immediately rejected.

If the minors database does become a reality, it would help protect the identities and social security numbers of children and “save hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of business loss” for credit issuers, said Foley.

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Every year, identity thieves take advantage of taxpayers by posing as IRS agents to collect personal data. The Seattle Post Intelligencer today posted 10 things the IRS wants everyone to know about identity theft.

1. The IRS does not initiate contact with a taxpayer by e-mail.

2. If you receive a scam e-mail claiming to be from the IRS, forward it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.

3. Identity thieves get your personal information in many different ways–through email, by phone, by sifting through your garbage, etc.

4. If you discover a website that claims to be the IRS but does not begin with ‘www.irs.gov’, forward that link to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.

5. To learn how to identify a secure website, visit the Federal Trade Commission at www.onguardonline.gov/tools/recognize-secure-site-using-ssl.aspx

6. If your Social Security number is stolen, another individual may use it to get a job.

7. Your identity may have been stolen if a letter from the IRS indicates more than one tax return was filed for you or the letter states you received wages from an employer you don’t know. If you receive such a letter from the IRS, respond immediately to the name, address or phone number on the IRS notice.

8. If your tax records are not currently affected by identity theft, but you believe you may be at risk due to a lost wallet, questionable credit card activity, or credit report, you need to provide the IRS with proof of your identity.

9. Show your Social Security card to your employer when you start a job or to your financial institution for tax reporting purposes. Do not routinely carry your card or other documents that display your Social Security number.

10. For more information about identity theft – including information about how to report identity theft, phishing and related fraudulent activity – visit the IRS Identity Theft and Your Tax Records Page, which you can find by searching “Identity Theft” on the IRS.gov home page.

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Last week, more than 100 million personal profiles and details from were scraped from Facebook’s pages and published online, according to Fox News. However, it turns out Facebook wasn’t hacked. Users were exposed because they chose not to keep their details private.

A program written by Ron Bowes, a security consultant, scanned all the listings in Facebook’s open-access directory and then compiled a text file that lists the information he uncovered. That data potentially exposes some Facebook users’ birthdays, addresses, phone numbers and more — all because they chose not to keep those details private.

Bowes told news reporters that he had simply accessed the same information that’s available to Google, Bing and Yahoo. However, posting birthdays and addresses online could put users at risk of identity theft. Hackers typically search for such information to open credit accounts under aliases, or they use the names they find in other online scams.

Facebook said that “information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher … no private data is available or has been compromised.” The company lets its users decide how much personal information they want to reveal to the public. If they want to keep their info private, they can do so in their privacy settings.

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