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| posted on Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 9:56 AM by aprpeh |
Employment Identity Theft and the IRS
Stolen Identities Used to File Tax Returns Grows 644 Percent - Fraudwar Blogspot
Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress - 2008
Ed Dickson at Fraudwar Blog reported on the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) Fiscal Year 2009 Objectives, report to Congress. The IRS has proposed improved processes to identify and manage consumer files where notification of identity theft has been previously made and fraud previously determined.
My experience in the past working with employment fraud is that, year upon year, a consumer who is a victim of this type of identity theft must wait for a letter from the IRS requesting payment for unreported income, submit a claim of non-responsibility and wait for an investigation from the IRS which occurs behind closed doors. When the IRS requests to be paid, the consumer contacts TAS and a fraud claim is submitted. The role of the employer is important. The IRS usually wants the consumer to attempt to contact the employer, the furnisher of employment data to the IRS, to seek correction of the record. The consumer, the party defrauded, is to attempt to set the record straight with the data furnisher on behalf of the US Federal Government's main tax collection authority, which has arresting and subpoena power. Obviously, something is wrong with this process.
Consumers subjected to employment fraud identity theft must take this step as if it were just a normal part of the annual tax filing process, but one which takes place months after the initial filing of a return. When the records are mixed, refunds are delayed and consumers have this threat to face late fees and penalties unless the proper corrections are made.
Essentially, the consumer becomes a non-paid employee of the IRS, initiating what, in a more just process would be a criminal investigation either handled by the IRS or ICE (or both). The task is made more complicated by the fact that the consumer is well-advised to request from the Social Security Administration (SSA) a detailed work history which includes copies of (or a listing of) previous years (10 years usually) W-2s and 1099-Misc forms submitted by employers to the SSA for withholding purposes. These records are used to uncover evidence of the fraud and discover if any other fraudulent employment was obtained using the consumer's Social Security Number. These forms will also verify the address on file of the fraudster, at least that reported by the employer to the SSA. The SSA cannot by law share this information with the IRS.
Theoretically, SSA could implement fraud practices which look for inconsistencies in their files based upon employment information submitted to the agency and share this information with the IRS for investigation or investigate themselves. Such analysis may not be easy and often good explanations can be given for why a consumer for instance has three full time jobs worth of income originating from three separate corporate entities and reports three (or more) addresses as residences around the USA. However, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, in a provision soon to become active later this year will require financial entities to look for similar inconsistencies in the long awaited "Red Flag Rules". But, as usual, the Federal Government does not include itself in such provisions.
Back to our consumer - unless some action is taken to intervene with the employer (provided the employer is merely also a victim of the fraud which is NOT always the case), the process will repeat itself year after year. Then again, the fraudster may start anew in a different location each year.
Unlike credit type identity theft, law enforcement at the local level often does not or is unable to assist a consumer with employment fraud. Even in situations where the fraudster lives within the same jurisdiction, this is not a guarantee of law enforcement intervention. It is encouraging to see the IRS make progress on assisting law abiding consumers with improved fraud reporting and file management. Now, if the IRS will only be able to investigate and make arrests. Investigations and arrests of identity theft perpetrators are few and far between.
| posted on Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 9:54 AM by aprpeh |
MNPS: State Reorganization or Disorganization?
If I didn't know better, I would think that the local media is supporting the ridiculous decision to transfer MNPS principals from one failing metro school to the next after reading "State reorganization moves on to school principal assignments," July 9, 2008.
I find it deeply disturbing that the media (and the community) have failed to recognize this for what it is: a desperate attempt to convince the community that we are actively working to improve the quality of education in our public schools. This last minute attempt to restructure neighborhood schools will most likely do more harm than good to the community at large.
The high rate of student mobility in Metro (approximately 40% per year) is compounded by the constant shifting of district-wide changes to school personnel by transferring teachers, administrators, and support staff on a regular basis.
Everything we know about the sociology of education in urban schools shows us that there is a strong correlation between parental involvement and student performance.
One thing that makes magnet, lottery, charter, parochial, and private schools so good is the fact that parents, teachers, students and administrators fight to get in, and fight to stay there. The act of choosing, in effect, leads to an enhanced sense of community and builds a supportive, consistent, and structured environment.
Good schools are a place where all members of the community, including school administrators, teachers, parents, and community leaders create a sub-culture with a common set of goals and expectations that are reinforced both in and out of the classroom environment.
Successful schools are an extension of the community at large, where everyone works together to create a common set of experiences; creating an environment that encourages parental involvement and community participation. If Metro continues to alienate educators by disemboweling the organizational structure within public schools, we may just lose the few experienced and dedicated teachers we still have left to surrounding districts, cities, and states.
By failing to examine the issue in further detail, the press and our community leaders are failing in their mission to provide the community with the information they need to participate in the political process that is MNPS. The media have a responsibility to examine and provide the community with the information they need to make informed policy decisions.
Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
Nashville, TN
| posted on Saturday July 12, 2008 at 1:07 PM by elyssad |
The Role of Religion in Picking a President
Religious Jews support U.S. Sen. John McCain for president in much higher numbers than non-religious Jews, a poll found. - JTA
Published: 07/09/2008
Religious Jews support U.S. Sen. John McCain for president in much higher numbers than non-religious Jews, a poll found.
The 39 percent of U.S. Jews who said religion is important in their daily lives evenly split their support for the presumptive candidates in November -- Arizona's McCain for the Republicans and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democrats -- at 45 percent, according to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday.
For Jews who said religion is not important, however, McCain picked up only 26 percent to 68 percent for Obama.
For all Americans who say religion is important, McCain received the support of 50 percent to Obama's 40 percent. Those who said religion is not important backed Obama over McCain, 55 percent to 36 percent.
The percentage of Jews who said religion was important fell well below the overall national average. Nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed said religion is important to them, according to the poll.
Nearly 95,000 registered voters were interviewed as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking between March and June.
The speculation has been for some time that McCain will do better than the most recent Republican candidates for President and may well surpass Reagan's 39% of the Jewish vote in 1980.
The Gallup poll does not mention a growing Orthodox population as a factor nor is there any evidence that the polling methodology accounts for a larger Orthodox population. It would be greatly encouraging to find more than 39% of American Jews responding that "religion is important in their daily lives". This same body of Jews can fairly be called the most knowledgeable about Jewish matters, the most personally connected with Israel and to the chagrin of Eric Yoffie, the real "Jewish" majority. Those Jews whose daily lives are energized and occupied with Torah, davening, mitzvas, Israel, chesed, etc., are indeed the real Jewish majority as defined by "use" and participation. The other 61% who are not yet religious would be well advised to bind themselves to the real "Jewish" majority.
Now, we can have a conversation about what it means to be a Jew, however I have little patience for arguments that define Judaism as what Jews think vis a vis what is the halachic approach and a Torah true mind set. Judaism is clearly definable as a religion with law, faith, history, and most importantly a Divine and everlasting covenant which does not provide for options in belief and merger of secular politics into the requirements placed upon the Jew by the G-d of the universe.
Is there one value or set of values or ideas which leads to more religious people favoring McCain and Republicans in general and less religious people favoring B. Hussein Obama and Democrats in general?
Perhaps. Religion is built upon a general belief in a common set of ideas usually known as values which manifests itself as a "morality", a concrete code by which the righteous are defined as those who uphold that morality while those who are less consistent in upholding the morality code defined by degree of their decreasing observance in the code. This structure provides for a consistent approach to judgment for both good and bad.
For liberals who have adopted a code which permits and encourages a lack of a common set of values except that a common set of values cannot be universally applied, the morality code is not a viable approach, a barrier to free expression no matter how bizarre it's manifestation.
And while the statistics do not support that every religious person will favor McCain and every non-religious person will favor Obama, the recurring voting patterns over multiple elections for a number of years seems to extend credibility to the theory.
| posted on Thursday July 10, 2008 at 10:31 AM by aprpeh |
Give Credit to a Dog
$142 Collection Bill Sent To Couple's Dog - KCRA
70,000 Consumers Complained About Debt Collectors In '06
POSTED: 9:23 pm PDT July 9, 2008
UPDATED: 11:39 pm PDT July 9, 200
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- More than 70,000 consumers complained about third-party debt collectors in 2007, but one Sacramento couple said they have good reason to bark about the bill they received.
Steve Fanelli received a bill from AFNI collections claiming an Andy Fanelli owes Verizon Online $142.34.
And although Steve Fanelli does indeed live with an Andy Fanelli, there is a small, furry problem with the bill.
Andy Fanelli is Steve Fanelli's dog.
"The point is that Andy has never had a Verizon account. We were just curious why this showed up," Steve Fanelli said.
After some "dogged" detective work by Call 3 Problem Solvers, Verizon said the debt is owed by a guy on the East Coast named Andy Fanelli.
"Just because there's an Andy Fanelli back east doesn't mean you send a letter to an Andy Fanelli in California," dog owner Shawn Donovan said. "There has to be something else to connect it."
Andy Fanelli, who is Steve Fanelli's and Donovan's Lhasa Apso, has its own American Express card that Donovan got when it was offered for "family members."
"It's an active card. From time to time I take my girlfriend's to lunch on Andy," Donovan said.
Consumers have complained about AFNI online and to the Illinois Attorney General, claiming AFNI tries to collect outdated or incorrect billing.
AFNI told Problem Solvers that it is a large company and diligent about debt verification.
The company said it thinks the problem with the Fanelli's happened because of the American Express Card.
Verizon Online cancelled Andy's debt, which he just shook off.
While this seems like a just fluff or maybe matted fur story for laughs there is a serious issue to consider. It is has been my observation working in an environment where credit and collection issues are a daily concern that this story underscores a problem many Americans face. No, pets are not routinely contacted by third party debt collectors (3PDCs). But every day plenty of Americans are contacted by mail or telephone by 3PDCs on a phishing expedition who treat these consumers as if they were dead beats. Unexpecting consumers have payment demands thrown at them for no better reason than they share the same or similar name to someone who indeed owes money on an account.
The debt collectors are merely skip tracing a name, developing lists of names of possible matches based upon name commonality, location and possibly credit report pulls and making collection calls. Some of these attempts to collect will be met head-on and the collector will move to the next consumer. However, far too often, the consumer receiving the collection will pay on an account in debt which is not their own due to fear or being unaware they can dispute the collection. 3PDCs do not make it a practice by and large to turn down payment on an account even if they have a doubt as to the authenticity of the contact they have made.
In other cases, the collection account will make its way to a credit report, sometimes because the 3PDC has presumed they contacted the correct consumer even though the consumer was not actually spoken with and never corresponded with the 3PDC. Sometimes, it is the credit bureau's mistake in failing to match the data to the correct consumer.
Another way an unsuspecting consumer can lose out is to a greedy mortgage broker (imagine that) telling a consumer, "we can wrap the debt into what you borrow" or insisting that the consumer pay the debt even if it is not there responsibility solely to quickly get a loan approved. This is doing a terrible dis-service to the consumer. Once a payment is made on an account, the 3PDC or creditor has every right to presume the correct consumer, that is the correct debtor is paying on a defaulted account. That credit information becomes attached to the credit file of the wrong consumer for at least 7 years, reflected as a paid collection.
Worst of all is the fear placed upon the elderly when they receive these phishing collection attempts. Afraid of losing independence, of looking bad, being sued or receiving a court judgment, often many elderly pay without a fight. This is essentially elder abuse and should be treated as such.
The collection world does have some decent people who conscientiously do there job to support an economy based upon credit and confidence in alternative payment vehicles (credit cards, checks, etc). Far too many 3PDCs though engage in reprehensible tactics which encroach upon and slip over permissible practice as laid out in the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA).
| posted on Thursday July 10, 2008 at 10:31 AM by aprpeh |
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