Meagher blog

Top 5 Online 2011 Tax Scams

likejacking' techniques found on the social network Facebook.

About 19 million people have already filed their taxes at home in 2011, an increase of almost 6 percent from the year previous, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Consequently, this time of year is ripe for tax-related online scams. Crooks know that taxpayers are looking for information on deductions and tax laws. They know that this is the time of year when taxpayers submit personal information online and store sensitive financial documents on their hard drives.

Jennifer Torode, a spokesperson for the security firm Sophos, says that most of us wait until the last minute to file our tax forms. Scammers know this and "take advantage over the next few weeks to find ways to lure frantic filers into their webs," she says.

Here are five tips to help you avoid getting ensnared by tax scammers this tax season.

1. Japan Quake Scam

Among the newest scams for 2011 are bogus e-mail messages promising a tax credit applicable to your 2010 tax return if you make a , according to McAfee consultant and identity theft expert Robert Siciliano. "The scam is based on the ruse being similar to a real law passed last year regarding Haiti," Siciliano said. In January 2010, Congress passed thethat allowed taxpayers to contribute to Haiti relief from January 11 to March 1, 2010 and claim it on their 2009 tax return. So far, the government has not established any retroactive tax rules involving this year's relief effort for Japan.

Tip: You can find many earthquake relief scams online; however, it's not clear how prevalent this particular scam is. For more information on how to make tax-deductible donations safely and effectively, consult .

2. Gone Phishing

One of the most popular ways to scam people during tax season is to set up Websites that look as if they are an official IRS site or a legitimate tax preparation service. "We have seen some scammers pretending to be tax preparation services, abusing brand names such as TurboTax, to obtain people's personal details," said Richard Wang, manager for Sophos Labs.

Other sites are designed to trick you into downloading a PDF file laden with malware, according to Jeff Horne, director of threat research for the security company Webroot. Horne also warns that sites may try to sneak malware onto your machine using a technique called a "drive-by download." Such sites contain code looking for exploits in your browser that will enable them to download malware onto your system without your knowledge. Merely by using a vulnerable browser to visit a site, you can be victimized with bad guys wielding this technique.

Once tax-related malware is loaded on your machine, it can set up a keylogger to track everything you type into your computer, or it can search your saved documents for keywords related to tax season such as "social security" or "1040."

Tip: The best defense against drive-by downloads is to make sure that you always use the latest version of a modern Web browser, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

3. Black Hat SEO

One of the tricks that crooks use to lure victims into a scam is to optimize their sites for Google searches, a technique known as "black hat SEO" (the acronym stands for "search engine optimization"). Horne suspects that these sites use resources such as Google Trends and Google Insights to discover the types of tax-related searches people are requesting. Once criminals have figured out some of the more popular keywords for this year's tax searches it's not difficult for them to optimize their bogus sites for search engines.

Tip: "Never use search engines to search for tax documents," Horne said.Instead, go directly to the government site (such as IRS.gov, USA.gov, or an individual state government site ending in '.gov') to look for tax forms and other tax information.

4. Likejacking

Facebook and other social networking sites are major targets for online scammers looking to make a quick buck off tax season.Horne says that Webroot has seen some examples of 'likejacking' in which scammers try to trick you into 'liking' their scam site on Facebook. Achieving this objective may involve hiding a Facebook "Like" button under another button on a third-party Website or exploiting a weakness in your browser by using a few snippets of JavaScript to press the Like button for you.

Once you "like" the site, an external link will show up in your Facebook news feed with a scam message such as, "I just got $500 by using this free tax preparation service."Friends who see that message may be tempted to click the link leading them to a phishing site or a spam site looking to increase its ad revenue by generating Web traffic.Note, however, that some legitimate tax preparation services are promoted on Facebook by institutions such as universities as well by individual friends.

Tip: Don't choose a tax preparation service on the basis of Facebook message attributed to a friend. At the very least, talk to the friend directly to confirm that he or she endorses the service.

, dump it for the latest version of IE available for your operating system--or use a different popular browser such as Chrome or Firefox.

3. Never use a search engine to look for government documents. Instead, go directly to sites such as IRS.gov, USA.gov, or individual state government sites ending in .gov, and search for forms there.

4. Never open or download attachments included with messages claiming to be from the IRS. The wisest course may be to refrain from opening any unsolicited tax-related e-mail message, as some poisoned messages use HTML to exploit weaknesses in your browser and initiate a drive-by download.

5. Never do your taxes over an unencrypted wireless connection such as free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. At home, even if you use the latest wireless security encryption standards such as WPA2 there, you are better off breaking out the LAN cable and using a wired connection when dealing with sensitive financial information.

6. Once you're finished filing your taxes for this year, make sure that you move all of your tax-related files for safe keeping to a USB key, an external hard drive, or some other form of removable storage.Then wipe all tax files off your computer's hard drive.Tax-related malware may lurk online long after tax season is over, according to Horne.If you happen to get infected, and you've stored your tax forms in a special folder on your PC, it won't take much for a scammer to steal your identity.

IRS Advice

The IRS also has a lot of helpful information to help keep you safe from phishing and other e-mail scams.The IRS emphasizes that it never asks taxpayers for their passwords, PINs, or other secret data relating to bank accounts and credit cards. Furthermore, never initiates taxpayer communication through e-mail.If you receive a dubious e-mail message claiming to be from the IRS, you can report it by forwarding the message without altering it to phishing@irs.gov.For more online tax security tips, check out the IRS's page on .

Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) andToday@PCWorldon Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

Unemployment falls to 9 pct., nearly 2-year low

WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate is sinking at the fastest pace in half a century because a surprisingly large number of people in a survey of households say they're finding work.

That picture is more encouraging than the results of a separate government survey of businesses that shows weak job growth last month. But that survey doesn't count the self-employed and likely undercounts the nation's smallest businesses. Also, harsh weather disrupted business payrolls in January.

The unemployment rate dropped sharply last month to 9 percent, based on a government survey that found that more than a half-million people found work. A separate Labor Department survey of company payrolls showed 36,000 net jobs created — barely a quarter of the number needed to keep pace with population growth.

The government's survey of households, which is used to calculate the unemployment rate, measures the self-employed, farm workers and household employees. Many economists also say the household survey includes more people who work at small companies.

The number of people who called themselves self-employed rose by 165,000 to 9.7 million in January, the report said. That's the highest total since last May.

"It is clear that the drop in unemployment reflected more jobs being added, not a drop in the labor force," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

Harsh snowstorms last month also affected the payroll survey. They cut into construction employment, which fell by 32,000, the most since May. Transportation and warehousing was also likely affected and fell by 38,000 — the most in a year.

"The thumbprints of the weather were all over this report," said Neil Dutta, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Hiring was suppressed last month and will likely rebound in February, he said. "We know the job market is recovering."

In another bright spot, manufacturing added 49,000 jobs, the most since August 1998. And retailers added 28,000 jobs, the largest number in a year.

Treasury yields rose after the report came out, a sign that traders think the job market is improving.

The unemployment rate has fallen by eight-tenths of a percentage point in the past two months. That's the steepest two-month drop in nearly 53 years.

But part of that drop has occurred as many of those out of work gave up on their job searches. When unemployed people stop looking for jobs, the government no longer counts them as unemployed.

The number of people who have given up looking rose to 2.8 million last month, from 2.6 million in December. About one million of those workers said they were discouraged. The others stopped looking because they returned to school or for other reasons.

And the participation rate, which is the percentage of the working-age population working or looking for work, fell to a 26-year low of 64.2 percent.

The number of people unemployed fell by more than 600,000 in January to 13.9 million. That's still about double the total that were out of work before the recession began in December 2007.

The January jobs report also includes the government's annual revisions to the employment data, which showed that fewer jobs were created in 2010 than previously thought. All told, about 909,000 net new jobs were added last year, down from a previous estimate of 1.1 million. The economy lost about 8 million jobs in 2008 and 2009.

In the past three months, the economy generated an average of 83,000 net jobs per month. That's not enough to keep up with population growth.

The weakness in the government payroll survey was widespread. Restaurants and hotels cut 2,200 jobs. Governments shed 14,000 positions. And temporary help agencies eliminated 11,000 jobs. Financial services lost 10,000 positions.

Education and health care services, one of the few steady job generators through the downturn, added 13,000 jobs, the fewest in almost two years. Financial services lost 10,000 jobs.

The number of people employed part time, but who would like full-time work, fell sharply to 8.4 million, from 8.9 million in December. When taken together with the people who have given up looking for work, the so-called "underemployment" rate was 16.1 percent. That's down from 16.7 percent the previous month.

Other recent reports show the economy is picking up. Factories are cranking out more goods, retail sales are increasing, and fewer people are applying for unemployment benefits.

Consumers are spending more and businesses are investing in more equipment and machinery. That's expected to lift economic growth to 3.2 percent this year, according to an AP survey of economists, compared to 2.9 percent in 2010.

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Mark Hamrick of AP Broadcast contributed to this report.

Q&A with CNN Worldwide president

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.

A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.

The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?

Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.

THR: How big a profit?

Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.

THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?

Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.

THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?

Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.

THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?

Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.

THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?

Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.

THR:hat do you predict for your business for this year?

Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.

THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?

Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

N.Z museum mulls options for mummified Maori heads

WELLINGTON (AFP) – For decades, New Zealand has campaigned for museums to repatriate the mummified and heavily-tattooed heads of Maori warriors held in collections worldwide -- now it must decide what to do with the gruesome but culturally valuable relics.

New Zealand's national museum Te Papa has more than 100 of the heads, known as toi moko, in storage in Wellington, along with about 500 skeletal remains plundered from Maori graves as recently as the 1930s.

In Maori culture, the dark swirls and geometric designs of traditional facial tattoos on men recognised high birth and rank, as well as achievements on the battlefield.

Te Herekiekie Herewini, who leads Te Papa's repatriation programme, said the heads of deceased chiefs or family members would be mummified as a way of preserving their spirit, while enemies' heads were preserved as war trophies.

"Initially the mummification of heads and bodies was part of our normal mourning process," he said.

"But when Europeans came, they saw the exotic nature of the heads and they became a coveted trading item because they were of commercial value in Europe, America and Australia."

The heads became so valuable that in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, some Maori hunted members of rival iwis (tribes) and murdered them to supply the burgeoning market in European museums for exotic human remains.

"For some of the iwi, trading in toi moko was strategic in accessing items such as muskets and European tools," Herewini said.

The trade in human heads was banned in the 1830s but over the next century museums turned their attention to skeletal remains.

New Zealand medical students also fed the demand, as they were required to take their own skeletons when they attended overseas colleges, with most of the bones robbed from Maori tombs.

"People would go to known caves or hidden burial sites where they knew Maori remains were and, without permission, they would take them and trade them," Herewini said. "Every museum wanted their own Maori head or Maori skeleton."

The grisly curios continued to be displayed in museums around the world, including New Zealand, until the 1970s.

Herewini said it was around then that Maori began pushing for the repatriation of their ancestors' remains, often meeting fierce resistance from institutions which feared it would set a precedent that could eventually see them forced to return human remains such as ancient Egyptian mummies.

The French parliament last year voted overwhelmingly in favour of returning around 15 Maori toi moko after years of debate about the implications of the move.

"These are much more than simple museum pieces," French lawmaker Michele Tabarot said at the time.

"These are human remains and some of these people were deliberately murdered to satisfy a despicable trade."

Herewini said repatriating remains was an emotional issue for Maori, who had a strong connection to the land and wanted to give the warriors the dignity of a proper funeral.

"For us, it's taking an ancestor back home, so it's the whole process of remembering," he said. "They're family members and it's important for them to be returned home to their resting place.

"The iwi don't know exactly who these people are but they do know they're connected to the land. They think about the different battles they were in, the different lifestyle they lived and the possible connections they have with them directly."

While the remains are returned to their iwi whenever possible, Herewini said that a lack of historical records meant about a quarter of the heads and bones held at Te Papa could not be identified.

They are stored in acid-free boxes in a special area of the museum and never go on display. Even viewing images of toi moko is considered taboo in Maori culture, Herewini said.

Building a permanent mausoleum for the unidentified remains in Wellington is under consideration but the Ngati Kuri tribe, in the country's far north, has put forward an alternative proposal.

They want to bury them near Te Rerenga Wairua, or Cape Reinga, the northernmost point in New Zealand, where Maori believe the spirits of the dead depart for the afterlife.

"It's a special area where there are ancient burial sites," Ngati Kuri Trust chairman Graeme Neho said. "Provided the other iwi agree, we believe placing their final resting place there would be a comfort to them and we would be their guardians."

Regardless of the remains' final destination, Herewiri sad he would continue his quest to return Maori ancestors to their homeland.

"For me, it's about righting a wrong, whether that was committed by Maori or Europeans is really immaterial," he said.

"It's completing the circle and bringing these people back home."

No. 13 Georgetown wins 83-81, despite Brooks' 43

WASHINGTON – Marshon Brooks was sitting on 43 points, the fifth highest total ever in a Big East game. He also had the ball and was dribbling downcourt in the final seconds, needing one more basket to tie or win.

Chris Wright poked and came away with the steal at the midcourt line, cradling the ball as he hit the floor — and almost calling a timeout that Georgetown didn't have. Brooks also fell, hitting his head to add some pain to the misery as the final horn sounded.

While Brooks was grimacing, the No. 13 Hoyas were celebrating an 83-81 win over Providence on Saturday, a game that will be most remembered for the one-man show that wasn't quite enough.

"He's a special player who had a special day," Georgetown coach John Thompson III. "It's as simple as that. We put a lot of different people on him. He scores in every way possible."

Georgetown (18-5, 7-4) won its sixth straight despite nearly blowing an 18-point, second-half lead against a team that hasn't won on the road this season. Austin Freeman scored 23 points, Jason Clark had 18, Wright added 16 and Julian Vaughn put in 14 points and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds for the Hoyas, who went 0 for 11 from 3-point range in the second half and also missed seven free throws in the final nine minutes.

While Georgetown was spreading the joy around, the Friars (14-10, 3-8) were all Brooks and reserve guard Duke Mondy (19 points). The pair accounted for all but 19 of Providence's points and combined to go 22 of 39 from the field, while the rest of the team was 7 for 32. Vincent Council was 0 for 10 and Gerard Coleman just 3 for 13.

Brooks went 17 of 28 from the field and 7 for 10 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and played all 40 minutes. His point total was the second highest all-time by a Providence player in a Big East game, behind Eric Murdock's conference-record 48 against Pittsburgh in 1991. And it just so happened to match the career high set by Georgetown Hall of Fame coach John Thompson when he played for the Friars in the 1960s.

"He single-handedly kept us in the game," Providence coach Keno Davis said.

The final sequence was set up when Wright made 1 of 2 free throws with 5.5 seconds to play, giving Georgetown a two-point lead. Both teams were out of timeouts — "I would have loved to purchase a couple more," Davis said — so Brooks caught the inbound pass in the backcourt and was on his way, shadowed by Clark and then Wright.

"Everybody in the gym knew he was going to shoot the ball," Wright said, "so I kind of left my man and I just had my eyes on the ball and tried to make a play."

Wright made the steal and initially appeared to try to call timeout just before the horn sounded, which would have resulted in a technical foul and two free throws for Providence. Asked if calling a timeout was his intention, Wright smiled and coyly said: "I don't remember."

Brooks, meanwhile, said the steal was clean. He sat on the floor long after the whistle had sounded and afterward sported an ice pack on his forehead.

"Nothing serious," he said. "I got kind of woozy, fell on top of my head, lost the ball."

Brooks, the only senior in the starting lineup, is now averaging 24.1 points for a team that is 0-7 on the road and hasn't won an away game since Jan. 14, 2010.

"I wouldn't say it's frustrating," he said, "because we're such a young team, and it's tough to win in this league with one senior playing a lot of minutes. I can't feel sorry, man. Just got to keep fighting."

Brooks' performance was so extraordinary that the superstitious Thompson broke with his usual postgame ritual and cracked a joke at the start of his news conference.

"I'll start off with a statement this time: I felt we did an outstanding job guarding Council," Thompson deadpanned to a room full of laughter. "We held that kid to three points."

More seriously, Thompson said of Brooks: "He's getting his, now let's see if we can take everyone else away. If you can take everyone else away when one player's having a special day, there's not too many people that can beat you by themselves. He was close."