Recall the issues in the past wherein people have had their refund stolen by tax payer information stolen (recall information gives no indication of being stolen).
The IRS is to use a number of external companies to capture information of our information to further guide the stimulus funds.
Intuit to capture and update information for non-filers, and another set of companies to change your bank routing and account information. Just in case you've changed accounts or have other issues since you have last filed a tax return.
then
So asking the normal information, all available as public records or obtained via phishing, social media, etc.
Some/anyone else can file for your stimulus check(s) before you do, just as a very large number of us have had their tax refunds stolen.
You (or they) need to supply a phone number. Easily done by someone else.
Then other security checks can currently be skipped.
Last years Adjusted Gross Income. Skip
PIN. Skip
State issued driver's License number or state issued ID: Leave blank
As it is/was with tax refunds:
Be first to your stimulus funds before fraudsters.
BUT be real real sure you are at the real site and not a site created to steal your IDentity and stimulus funds.
Recall from last years Cyber Security SIG meetings, the city of San Marcos was a victim of a phishing attack where the tax details of all employees was sent to a external eMail address claiming to be a person in authority. Many of those employees were victim to a campaign to route federal tax refunds to other bank accounts or prepaid credit/debit cards. With today's environment with workers working remotely or from home, the chance of a similar phishing attack increase AND the chance of such information being in transit over the Internet un-encrypted also is increased.
Chances of you being a victim are slight. But recovering your federal IDentity can take years.
Awareness, Preparedness, Understanding.
Update: 15-April-2020
The IRS launched a website for tracking your stimulus payment.
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-wmsp/notice
MANY are reporting: Payment Status Not Available
Update: 25-Apr-2020 The first batch of 5 million paper checks due to arrive "soon" - this week. More checks are scheduled to be sent each week, about 5 million per week until September.
As stated above you may choose to provide the IRS with your bank direct deposit information to perhaps speed the process. Several sites that capture that information and have your stimulus payment information changed to their bank accounts have been found and taken down. Ability to capture your IRS interactions by manipulating DNS or BGP are in use with new ones appearing daily. Phone scams, pop-up and browser ads and many other Covid-19 methods in use by criminals to steal your stimulus funds, sell you pandemic gear or treatments have increased by 30,000% in recent days. NOT a typo 30,000%
Again, awareness, preparedness, and understanding to protect your financial wealth is a goal of the Cyber Security SIG>
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