While people have to buy shredders and there are more and more security layers when access our own information online and elsewhere, theese people are running around free doing whatever they want, praying on people who then have to waste a lot of time cleaning up their name. When are we going to get tought on identitity theft? Let's stop treating it as a white collar crime. Put these people in jail with rapistas and murderers and give them the death penalty.

Is is possible that the reason we don't get tought on identity theft is that it would harm illegal immigration and corporations could not get their precious slave labor? Might be.

if my husband would only get a burn barrel, we'd perhaps gain another room in our house! i don't put ANYTHING in the garbage that has our names on it. ever.

consequently, i have totes and totes FULL of mail for the last two years, from cancelled bills to junk to subscriptions to special offers.

burn it or shred it.

I have a shredder that cuts paper into little bits, not the traditional shredder that cuts it into "spaghetti". But even if you are carefull, some moron could lose or misplace a laptotp with your info on it. Those people need to pay severely for such mistakes, a few decades in federal penn might get them to be more careful, I think.

H&R Block

They suck.

A lesson to be learned.... do not ever give out your social security number. All to often it is commonplace for that to be your identifying number on every form you fill out.

When I go to an office that asks for it, I ask why they need it. 95% of the time the answer is "because it is on the form" or "I don't know". If they absolutely cannot accept me as a customer without knowing it, I will find another provider that will. So far no one has refused me as a client due to not giving them the social security number and I doubt they ever will.

Never have your taxes done by H&R Block, Incompetent, when there is a problem they don't give a crap and most of the returns they process are simple enough for a ten year old to fill out.

She didn't HAVE her taxes done by H&R Block, the ID thief did.

But even if you are carefull, some moron could lose or misplace a laptotp with your info on it.

You got that right. Not too long ago, I received three such letters in a two month time period. Somebody at the VA had a laptop stolen, and the company that managed my IRA, as well as my insurance company had data tapes stolen. The worst part of it all was the burden was put on me to prove suspicious activity before they would reimburse for credit monitoring.

Or an illegal immigrant can use your information to get a job and credit, but they are just trying to get a piece if the pie. We should not be so selfish with our identities. I recomend everyone adopt an illigal to share your identity with.

H&R Block does suck. All they do is train people to use the software sold at Staples.

Does anyone know if the "Life Lock" service is any good?

"That's just scary to me knowing that my information is out there and she's fabricated a W-2, fabricated a Georgia Driver's License and H&R Block has no way of knowing that I'm the correct Robin Johnson," Johnson said.

CBS 46 News contacted the Federal Trade Commission Friday and they said that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Johnson is entitled to the phony tax information that was filed at the H&R Block.

The H&R Block manager said she wouldn't give Johnson that information.

* * * *

Sounds like the Justice Department needs to shut down H&RB until things straighten out, eh?

There's a lot that's fishy, though. For example, the EIN on the W-2 has to match the company name, which suggests that the company used on the FAKE W-2 had to be real. Then, the IRS is supposed to check using THAT company's withholding information that there were Federal and Social Security taxes withheld by that company, FOR that individual. That's why the companies send a copies of every W-2 to the IRS in the first place. The IRS is supposed to hold up your refund if the W-2 issued by the employer and the W-2 submitted by the individual don't match. So why was a refund check cut?

Too many things have gone wrong here to suggest that this article has told us everything.