Re: Important: Data Breach

[Chris Chaffin]

For those interested, here is some information on how to set up an identity PIN with the IRS that I posted to my social media account. Identity Protection PIN.  Identity theft is real, and in the US, we have over one million reported cases each year.  One way our identity is stolen is by criminals filing tax returns pretending to be us.  To protect from that happening, we can now sign up for an Identity Protection PIN with the IRS.  This makes it that a tax return can not be filed in your name without that PIN.  And that even goes for yourself.  You will even have to have this PIN in order to file your return.  I just signed up for mine myself.  I have supplied a link at the end, but here are some tips before you get started. 1, The IRS us ID dot Me to set up your account and verify your identity.  If you already have a ID dot Me account, then the process is simple and quick, just follow the link at the end. 2, Once you get started, it will take you to a page, and you will choose create an account.  It will automatically take you to ID.ME to do this. 3, After you have your account created and your 2 factor set up, you will then have to verify your idenity.  Note.  Write down your user name, password, and recovery code.  It is very important that you do not lose this information! 4, There are 2 ways of verifying your identity.  In both ways you will be taking a picture of the front and back of your state ID, so have it with you. 5, So your choices will be to supply a picture of your state ID and a selfy, or supply a picture of your state ID and do a video chat with a ID.ME representative.  I tried the selfy choice, but after many attempts I was never able to do it. 6, I highly recommend the state ID and video chat option.  The video chat only takes about 2 minutes.  They just have to verify that you are the same as the picture on your ID. 7, After the video chat, you will receive an email with a link.  By hitting enter on the link, it opens another link below that in the email.  Just hit enter on that one and it will automatically load a page and connect your ID dot Me to your IRS account, and your done. 8, To get your PIN anytime, just do a search for IRS Account, then bookmark that page.  You will see a sign in button, and that will take you to the page to sign with your ID dot ME user name and password. 9, Note:  The Social Security Administration will be starting to require that you have and link an ID.Me account to your social security account in order to access it in the future.  So creating an ID.Me account will help take care of both task.  Here is the link to sign up. https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin Hope this is helpful. Chris Chaffin Follow me on Mastodon: @chrischaffin@dragonscave.space   On Aug 19, 2024, at 11:53 AM, Chela Robles <cdrobles...@gmail.com> wrote: Well, it looks like I don’t have to go to my carrier because my Sim is already locked. So I don’t have to do that part. As for the IRS, I will have to figure that one out. Again, thanks for letting us know. Sent from my iPhone On Aug 19, 2024, at 7:56 AM, 'Richard Turner' via VIPhone <viphone@googlegroups.com> wrote:  Good explanation Chris. We also froze our credit a few years ago. We needed to buy a new car last year.  While at the car dealers, my wife simply asked which credit service they used to check our credit score and on her iPhone, unfroze that service, they checked our credit score and she froze it again. It only took a few minutes.     Richard, USA "INTROVERTS UNITE ... SEPARATELY IN YOUR OWN HOMES" -- as seen on a T-shirt with a power fist raised   My web site: https://www.turner42.com   From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Chris Chaffin Sent: Monday, August 19, 2024 7:16 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Important: Data Breach     Its a personal choice, but months before this breach, I decided to do what I can to protect myself from identity theft.  So I decided to do 3 things.   * Froze my credit with all three credit bureaus.  This does not stop you from using any credit cards or anything like that.  It just blocks any new credit inquiries, so no new credit cards or loans can be taken in your name.  Freezing your credit is not a permanent thing.  You can thaw and re-freeze your credit as much as you need to.   * I signed up and registered with the IRS for a personal PIN.  This prevents anyone from filing a tax return in your name.  This PIN changes every year, and it is mandatory in order for you to file your taxes.   *  I went to my cell provider and locked my cim.  This prevents someone from highjacking your cim and phone number so they can receive your 2 factor codes, which would help them access your accounts.   Millions of people are getting their identities stolen every year, and once done, it is not easy to get it back.  I have heard several stories from people that this has happened too.  I realize that nothing is full proof, but I personally want to do what I can to protect myself.   I figured that there are some that did not know that you could do these things, so just thought I would share.   Chris Chaffin   Follow me on Mastodon: @chrischaffin@dragonscave.space   On Aug 18, 2024, at 6:06 PM, janet gross <janet.harv...@outlook.com> wrote:  Hello Chela,   I’m just now catching up with emails, and I am just now seeing this data preach.  I don’t think this will effect monthly Social Security checks from automatic deposits.   Although, you might want to seriously think about putting a freeze on the 3 major credit reporting agencies, we as the citizens have to take a part in protecting ourselves as well.     But yet, keep in mind some or all the credit agencies have also experienced data breaches too.    There are so many data preaches, that it is hard to keep up with all of them.  There has been many data breaches , and most of the time we as citizens don’t even hear about half of them.  From what I have recently read about this breach is this happened in ‘April, but we are just now hearing about this, or I am just now hearing about this.       Janet From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Chela Robles Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2024 4:33 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Important: Data Breach   But I wonder how it will affect Social Security income I'm also wondering if anyone is going to do anything about it, I know that all my online presents is doubly secured as far as two factor authentication so I’m covered there But I’m just wondering what is being done right now to come back this hacker in order to prevent this situation in the future again.  Sent from my iPhone On Aug 18, 2024, at 1:25 PM, Sieghard Weitzel <siegh...@live.ca> wrote:  Whether you have credit or not makes no difference, your information can still be used for criminal purposes.   From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Chela Robles Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2024 9:25 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Important: Data Breach   Well, luckily, I haven't any credit and don't belong to any of those mentioned in the news. Hopefully it will not affect SSI monthly checks or deposis. Does Social Security Administration know about this? I wondering what they're doing about it. Sent from my iPhone On Aug 17, 2024, at 5:20 PM, James Bentley <bentleyj1...@gmail.com> wrote:  All data for the U K, Australia, Canada, and the USA are involved.   James B     From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of donmoor...@gmail.com Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2024 6:54 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: Important: Data Breach   I saw this in a Kim Commando email several days ago.  They believe all social Security numbers are involved.   From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of mi...@eastlink.ca Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2024 7:50 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: Important: Data Breach   Hi I whent to this websight that you listed but since I am in Ontario Canada this doesn’t effect me since I live in Ontario Canada. And we have herd nothing about this data breetch hear in Canada. From Mich.   From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of lang...@gmail.com Sent: August 17, 2024 7:42 PM To: lang...@gmail.com Subject: Important: Data Breach   Hi all,   I tried posting the following on Facebook, but not all of the links showed up in my post, so I took it down. While this isn’t specifically related to JAWS, iPhones and other assistive technologies, I felt that it was important enough to spread the news far and wide through a couple of e-mail list. Feel free to continue spreading it far and wide.  No flames, please.   I don’t mean to increase anyone’s paranoia, but on the news a couple of days ago I heard about a massive data breach; nearly 3 billion records containing people’s names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers are now available on the Internet and the dark web. Rich De Muro, who does a Saturday tech show on Los Angeles radio station KFI AM and a regular spot on KTLA channel 5, also publishes a weekly newsletter which I get in my inbox every Saturday morning. Below is an excerpt from this week’s newsletter pertaining to the data breach.  It contains links to a place where you can read about the breach and check to see if your information was breached.    Here's the excerpt from the newsletter.   Cybersecurity Corner This week's big story is the data breach, which contains nearly 3 billion records…. including names, addresses, dates of birth, and, unfortunately, social security numbers. A cybersecurity firm named Pentester set up a special site where you can enter your name and year of birth to see if your information is in the dump. Check for your SSN The bad news: it probably is, and you might want to freeze your credit reports. I did and found the process to be quite easy: you create a login, bypass all the nonsense they try to sell you on and tap Freeze. You can also unfreeze in a tap. While your report is frozen, no one can open a new account in your name. Here are the direct links for Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.   A listener called into Rich’s tech show and passed on a tip regarding another place worth looking into. It is https://www.chexsystems.com/ -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list.   If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.   Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. 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