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Monday, November 14, 2011
SHAW CAPITAL MANAGEMENT WORLD FINANCIAL NEWS - Cochrane Shaw Capital Management Pty Ltd
http://www.cochraneshaw.com.au/content.php
As a Principal Member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia, Cochrane Shaw Capital Management Pty Ltd is a boutique dealer providing financial services to a diverse range of individual clients and corporations as well as accounting firms and legal practices.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Shaw Capital Management Factoring and Financings Latest News
http://news.shaw-capitalmanagementfactoring.com/
AMD announced its new CEO Rory Read. His new position follows after five years of being company president and chief operating officer at the PC maker Lenovo. Read served IBM for 23 years, including managing director for IBM’s Consulting Services division and general manager for business consulting services in the South Pacific. Shaw Capital Management reports that he is also a part of the company’s board of directors.
AMD Chairperson Bruce Claflin states that Read has proven to be a proficient leader who can draw more profits for the business. He believed that Rory can improve AMD’s evolution as a worldwide company leading in the semiconductor designs.
Dirk Meyer, AMD’s previous CEO, resigned from his position eight months earlier from a mutual decision over a reported disagreement concerning the company’s mobile strategy. AMD instantly searched for a new CEO, where Read is now appointed. Although the company never mentioned about other possible candidates, but it was believed that it included the current Apple CEO Tim Cook, HP CEO Mark Hurd, and former NCR and Intel executives. Thomas Seifert acted as interim CEO for AMD while the search was ongoing. He will return to his position as senior vice president and CFO with Read’s appointment.
AMD is currently aiming for a high performance graphics processing. Shaw Capital Management Warning News has identified its primary competitor is Nvidia. It has also launched a new line of APU processors that come with integrated graphics. This is product intends to compete with myriad Atom offerings and Intel’s second-generation core processors.
Read’s is equipped with extensive experience from Lenovo and IBM, making his skills competent for the company to venture into a new product area where profitability is possible. He is faced with a new challenge, but his expertise has prepared him for this role. AMD and Lenovo may have participated in the budding industry for tablet devices in the latter years. But AMD can aggressively match Intel’s high-end server market.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Shaw Capital Management Headlines: Stolen Avengers Script Reveals Famous Boiler Room Scene
There could already be troubles on the set of the Avengersmovie, as Samuel L. Jackson’s (Nick Fury in the movie) script was recently swiped in either Los Angeles or Burbank, California. The unscrupulous thieves attempted to sell the screenplay to a number of movie sites and bloggers, but no one took them up on their offer. Important to note, however, is that no one contacted us here at UGO. Not saying we would have been interested – becuase we totally wouldn’t have been – it just would have been nice to have been offered the chance is all.
While the aforementioned movie sites and bloggers are far too ethical to actually purchase the script and leak its entire contents, there’s apparently some kind of loophole that makes it completely OK to show some lo-res jpegs of a stack of pages. The most prominently featured one seems to describe a scene in which Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk while Black Widow tries to calm him down and Captain America and Iron Man run somewhere. Another important note: We’ve been saying that Avengers would show Bruce Banner transforming into the Hulk and people running since jump street.
Rumor has it that the leaked script also shows Hulk smashing things.
What the script leak means (aside from some awkward moments at craft services between Jackson and writer/director Joss Whedon) is still up in the air, however. Originally, Film Fan Reviewreported that production would be halted while the scene was rewritten, but the site has since gone on to note that both Marvel and Disney have debunked that particular part of the rumor. This makes sense, of course, because not only do the revealed script pages tell us absolutely nothing we didn’t already know/assume, but the only people paying attention to this are nerds like us, as absolutely everyone else in the country is out seeing Fast Five and/or making Osama Bin Laden jokes on Twitter.
If you can’t wait until 2012 to see the pivotal Hulk-transformation-engine-room scene, check out the script page in question below:
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Shaw Capital Management: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US Part 1 of 2
World wide recovery appears to have firmed up. In the UK the statistics have lagged behind the anecdotal signs of the same thing. No one still believes the ONS’s peculiar decision to call a revised GDP drop of 0.2% in the third quarter (now revised down from an initial estimate of 0.4%).
The UK now have not merely surveys of purchasing managers but also employment, production and retail sales figures, all of which suggest that the economy levelled off in the third quarter and could have possibly also started expanding then, and was definitely expanding in the fourth. The most troubling aspect of the recovery in western economies including the UK is the lack of credit growth to the non-bank private sector. However, this has been accompanied by a general easing in monetary conditions, as measured by other indicators, such as rates of interest on corporate loans and bonds, and the cost of equity capital.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – So it appears that the policy easing carried out by virtually all western central banks has succeeded in offsetting at least much of the effects of the credit crunch created by the banking crisis.
Another feature has been the willingness of western governments to allow their budget balances to move into heavy deficit.
The way to think of this is that governments will eventually have to pay off these deficits by either cutting spending services to the private sector or raising taxes on it. Hence these deficits are loans to the private sector to perform current services or avoid collecting current taxes; these loans will be paid off in the future. The government is effectively giving credit to the private sector that has dried up through the usual channels.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – Some people would like to debate whether such government deficits are effective in supporting the economy; however it should be obvious that in a credit crunch all credit provision is likely to be effective in offsetting the credit shortage. One can agree that in normal times deficit multipliers could well be low because rational consumers will work out that they must pay future taxes to pay for the deficits and hence they may well save in response, so offsetting the direct deficit stimulus.
However in a credit crunch this argument is irrelevant because the private sector is liquidity-constrained. So monetary and fiscal policy have both been dominated by the need to provide a substitute for bank credit. They have done so and been rather effective in this.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – As long as the recovery does not raise inflation and require interest rates to rise, and money creation to be stopped and reversed, the government deficits have been costless because financed by money creation at zero interest rate therefore.
The burning question is when is the turning point, when ‘monetary exit’ must be started, turning these deficits into expensive processes that could violate sustainability conditions, and hence precipitating the necessity of fiscal exit also.
From the UK or US perspective there is no real reason to rush to the exit. Both countries’ public debt/GDP ratios are quite low, in the region of 50 80% respectively. There is no history of outright default, or of refusal to pay taxes. The main issue concerns the possibility of using inflation as a partial default tool.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – In the UK there has been a formal inflation target of 2% or so for 17 years; in the US there is no formal target but a widespread assumption encouraged by the Fed that there effectively is one of the same order. Since debt has been issued over a long period on the assumption of such a target, the gain to the Treasury from a burst of inflation would be large; it would act like a windfall tax on bond investors.
For example to reduce the debt/GDP ratio in the UK back to 40% from its current level of 56% would just require four years of inflation at 6%, only 4% over the target.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – Tempting as this might sound, it is striking how little public interest there is in it. Inflation was highly unpopular in both countries when it was out of control in the 1970s and early 1980s; inflation targeting has proved politically successful for this reason.
The UK now have not merely surveys of purchasing managers but also employment, production and retail sales figures, all of which suggest that the economy levelled off in the third quarter and could have possibly also started expanding then, and was definitely expanding in the fourth. The most troubling aspect of the recovery in western economies including the UK is the lack of credit growth to the non-bank private sector. However, this has been accompanied by a general easing in monetary conditions, as measured by other indicators, such as rates of interest on corporate loans and bonds, and the cost of equity capital.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – So it appears that the policy easing carried out by virtually all western central banks has succeeded in offsetting at least much of the effects of the credit crunch created by the banking crisis.
Another feature has been the willingness of western governments to allow their budget balances to move into heavy deficit.
The way to think of this is that governments will eventually have to pay off these deficits by either cutting spending services to the private sector or raising taxes on it. Hence these deficits are loans to the private sector to perform current services or avoid collecting current taxes; these loans will be paid off in the future. The government is effectively giving credit to the private sector that has dried up through the usual channels.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – Some people would like to debate whether such government deficits are effective in supporting the economy; however it should be obvious that in a credit crunch all credit provision is likely to be effective in offsetting the credit shortage. One can agree that in normal times deficit multipliers could well be low because rational consumers will work out that they must pay future taxes to pay for the deficits and hence they may well save in response, so offsetting the direct deficit stimulus.
However in a credit crunch this argument is irrelevant because the private sector is liquidity-constrained. So monetary and fiscal policy have both been dominated by the need to provide a substitute for bank credit. They have done so and been rather effective in this.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – As long as the recovery does not raise inflation and require interest rates to rise, and money creation to be stopped and reversed, the government deficits have been costless because financed by money creation at zero interest rate therefore.
The burning question is when is the turning point, when ‘monetary exit’ must be started, turning these deficits into expensive processes that could violate sustainability conditions, and hence precipitating the necessity of fiscal exit also.
From the UK or US perspective there is no real reason to rush to the exit. Both countries’ public debt/GDP ratios are quite low, in the region of 50 80% respectively. There is no history of outright default, or of refusal to pay taxes. The main issue concerns the possibility of using inflation as a partial default tool.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – In the UK there has been a formal inflation target of 2% or so for 17 years; in the US there is no formal target but a widespread assumption encouraged by the Fed that there effectively is one of the same order. Since debt has been issued over a long period on the assumption of such a target, the gain to the Treasury from a burst of inflation would be large; it would act like a windfall tax on bond investors.
For example to reduce the debt/GDP ratio in the UK back to 40% from its current level of 56% would just require four years of inflation at 6%, only 4% over the target.
Shaw Capital Management Korea: Debit Policy is Working Well in UK & US – Tempting as this might sound, it is striking how little public interest there is in it. Inflation was highly unpopular in both countries when it was out of control in the 1970s and early 1980s; inflation targeting has proved politically successful for this reason.
Japan’s Economic Growth Slowed Again Part 2: Shaw Capital Management Article
Japan’s Economic Growth Slowed Again Part 2: Shaw Capital Management Article – Japan’s economic recovery appears to have faltered unexpectedly sharply during the second quarter of this year. The government’s preliminary GDP statistics put the real quarter-to-quarter growth rate at 0.1%, which translates into an annualised 0.4%, marking an expansion for the third consecutive quarter.
It is well-known that Japanese GDP data are volatile and subject to drastic revisions in both directions. Nevertheless, these data suggest that the economy has slowed considerably.
Japan’s Economic Growth Slowed Again Part 2: Shaw Capital Management Korea – This has raised concern that the nation’s economic recovery may come to a standstill in the latter half of the fiscal year in the midst of an evident global slowdown of recovery.
Shaw Capital Management Korea Newsletter – Export growth is expected to weaken in line with the slowing of world trade and recent strength of the yen. Even the Chinese economy is slowing down. On the other hand, corporate profits have been good, but the appreciation of the yen and stagnation in the domestic market might reduce the appetite of Japanese firms for investment at home. Indeed, private machinery orders, an indicator for capital investment, have been very weak. There are increasing signs that many firms are sending more of their production offshore.
Shaw Capital Management Korea – Under these circumstances, the government is reported to have started considering an additional stimulus package to deal with the appreciation of the yen, the decline in stock prices, and deflation.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan will have a talk with State Minister for National Policy Satoshi Arai, Minister of Finance Yoshihiko Noda, and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Masayuki Naoshima on the shape of a new package, which may be announced in early September, according to the press.
Shaw Capital Management Korea Newsletter – Economists and observers criticized the government, and the central bank, for failing to take appropriate measures and urged them to craft bolder policies to decisively face up to the wobbly state of the economy. In particular, they emphasized the importance of preventing any further appreciation of the yen and demanded that the government and the Bank of Japan act first of all to put a brake on the yen’s rise in preparation for the growing fear of a second dip in business.
“The yen’s rise not only squeezes exporters’ profits but also, if left as it is, will encourage manufacturing companies to shift production bases outside Japan, resulting in an irrevocably adverse influence on employment and other segments.
Shaw Capital Management Korea Newsletter – The Finance Ministry should not hesitate to intervene in the foreign exchange market”, said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. With the currency recently rising to a 15-year high against the US dollar, speculation has increased that Japanese authorities may act soon to slow the surging yen. BOJ officials have opposed the idea of more aggressively using their balance sheet because of worries that it could increase market concerns about Japan’s fiscal discipline and that the anti-deflation drug could prove too effective, causing prices to rise out of control. Many analysts believe that the BOJ will make a move in the foreign exchange market soon.
It is well-known that Japanese GDP data are volatile and subject to drastic revisions in both directions. Nevertheless, these data suggest that the economy has slowed considerably.
Japan’s Economic Growth Slowed Again Part 2: Shaw Capital Management Korea – This has raised concern that the nation’s economic recovery may come to a standstill in the latter half of the fiscal year in the midst of an evident global slowdown of recovery.
Shaw Capital Management Korea Newsletter – Export growth is expected to weaken in line with the slowing of world trade and recent strength of the yen. Even the Chinese economy is slowing down. On the other hand, corporate profits have been good, but the appreciation of the yen and stagnation in the domestic market might reduce the appetite of Japanese firms for investment at home. Indeed, private machinery orders, an indicator for capital investment, have been very weak. There are increasing signs that many firms are sending more of their production offshore.
Shaw Capital Management Korea – Under these circumstances, the government is reported to have started considering an additional stimulus package to deal with the appreciation of the yen, the decline in stock prices, and deflation.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan will have a talk with State Minister for National Policy Satoshi Arai, Minister of Finance Yoshihiko Noda, and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Masayuki Naoshima on the shape of a new package, which may be announced in early September, according to the press.
Shaw Capital Management Korea Newsletter – Economists and observers criticized the government, and the central bank, for failing to take appropriate measures and urged them to craft bolder policies to decisively face up to the wobbly state of the economy. In particular, they emphasized the importance of preventing any further appreciation of the yen and demanded that the government and the Bank of Japan act first of all to put a brake on the yen’s rise in preparation for the growing fear of a second dip in business.
“The yen’s rise not only squeezes exporters’ profits but also, if left as it is, will encourage manufacturing companies to shift production bases outside Japan, resulting in an irrevocably adverse influence on employment and other segments.
Shaw Capital Management Korea Newsletter – The Finance Ministry should not hesitate to intervene in the foreign exchange market”, said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. With the currency recently rising to a 15-year high against the US dollar, speculation has increased that Japanese authorities may act soon to slow the surging yen. BOJ officials have opposed the idea of more aggressively using their balance sheet because of worries that it could increase market concerns about Japan’s fiscal discipline and that the anti-deflation drug could prove too effective, causing prices to rise out of control. Many analysts believe that the BOJ will make a move in the foreign exchange market soon.
Shaw Capital Management News: Washington Waxes Brazilian
Brazil provides us with an example of a rapidly developing, energy-hungry economy in the Western Hemisphere, where biofuel is a fact of life. Biofuel is also an investment imperative for energy investors and companies that want to make money in Brazil. As an important part of the #3 economy in the Americas, ethanol can’t be ignored by the United States.
(Sugar) Ethanol as a Global Commodity; Focus on Cosan Ltd. (NYSE: CZZ) Cosan is entering into a joint venture with an oil giant that could be worth $12 billion, and its happy beginning to 2010 signals a renewal of interest in ethanol and entrance of some unlikely participants into biofuels. Cosan, a Brazilian company that processes more sugar than anyone else in the world, is now joining with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS), the #2 oil producer in Europe.
Shell is paying Cosan $1.625 billion for half of its core assets. As part of the joint venture that will emerge, Shell is also taking on Cosan’s debt and opening up 2,740 Shell service stations to Cosan’s sweet, green fuel. Shell will also give Cosan two small Brazilian companies … Codexis and Iogen … where Shell has been investing in ethanol. Cosan is entering into a joint venture with an oil giant that could be worth $12 billion, and…signals a renewal of interest in ethanol and entrance of some unlikely participants into biofuels.
Shaw Capital Management Korea News: Cosan stands to gain big from an efficient system of turning agricultural leftovers into fuel in its own right. Of all the money and knowledge changing hands, one part is most important: By gaining access to Shell’s distribution system, Cosan will have the luxury of ramping up production without
worrying if there will be buyers.
Shell wants to fertilize Cosan’s cane-based business. Cosan output now has to grow from 2 billion liters per year up to the 3 billion that will be needed to satisfy a total 4,500 fuel stations in Brazil. From there, it’s up to 4 and 5 billion liters annually and on to making ethanol a global commodity. You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between Shell and Cosan’s statements on this joint venture if you removed a couple of words. Very simply, each company wants access to the other’s expertise. “Cosan represents the best entry to sustainable biofuels in the market… the best entry of scale,” Shell’s Mark Williams said in London. In Sao Paulo, Cosan Chairman Rubens Ometto said the tie-up is intended to be “the step forward that was lacking, in spite of all our efforts, to make ethanol a global commodity.” Shell’s 45,000 stations around the world will pump biofuel to vehicles that can run on gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture of the two.
Shaw Capital Management Korea News: Low prices also help, as evidenced in Brazil where flex-fuel vehicles now account for 90% of new cars and truck sales. Shell’s 45,000 stations around the world will pump biofuel to vehicles that can run on gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture of the two (Brazil mandates that all gasoline have at least a 20% ethanol component). As it stands, Brazilians are the end users of the vast majority of the ethanol that their country produces (about 25 billion liters annually). And you wouldn’t know it from most of the media, but ethanol is more than just an automotive matter…
Shaw Capital Management, Korea – Investment Innovation & Excellence. We provide the information; insight and expertise that you need to make the right investment choices. Shaw Capital Management Korea typically offers its clients such services as asset allocation and portfolio design; traditional and non-traditional manager review and selection; portfolio implementation; portfolio monitoring and consolidated performance reporting; and other wealth management services, including estate, tax, trust and insurance planning, asset custody, closely held business issues associated with the establishment or expansion of a family office, the formation of family investment partnerships or LLCs, philanthropy, family dynamics and inter-generation issues, etc.
(Sugar) Ethanol as a Global Commodity; Focus on Cosan Ltd. (NYSE: CZZ) Cosan is entering into a joint venture with an oil giant that could be worth $12 billion, and its happy beginning to 2010 signals a renewal of interest in ethanol and entrance of some unlikely participants into biofuels. Cosan, a Brazilian company that processes more sugar than anyone else in the world, is now joining with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS), the #2 oil producer in Europe.
Shell is paying Cosan $1.625 billion for half of its core assets. As part of the joint venture that will emerge, Shell is also taking on Cosan’s debt and opening up 2,740 Shell service stations to Cosan’s sweet, green fuel. Shell will also give Cosan two small Brazilian companies … Codexis and Iogen … where Shell has been investing in ethanol. Cosan is entering into a joint venture with an oil giant that could be worth $12 billion, and…signals a renewal of interest in ethanol and entrance of some unlikely participants into biofuels.
Shaw Capital Management Korea News: Cosan stands to gain big from an efficient system of turning agricultural leftovers into fuel in its own right. Of all the money and knowledge changing hands, one part is most important: By gaining access to Shell’s distribution system, Cosan will have the luxury of ramping up production without
worrying if there will be buyers.
Shell wants to fertilize Cosan’s cane-based business. Cosan output now has to grow from 2 billion liters per year up to the 3 billion that will be needed to satisfy a total 4,500 fuel stations in Brazil. From there, it’s up to 4 and 5 billion liters annually and on to making ethanol a global commodity. You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between Shell and Cosan’s statements on this joint venture if you removed a couple of words. Very simply, each company wants access to the other’s expertise. “Cosan represents the best entry to sustainable biofuels in the market… the best entry of scale,” Shell’s Mark Williams said in London. In Sao Paulo, Cosan Chairman Rubens Ometto said the tie-up is intended to be “the step forward that was lacking, in spite of all our efforts, to make ethanol a global commodity.” Shell’s 45,000 stations around the world will pump biofuel to vehicles that can run on gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture of the two.
Shaw Capital Management Korea News: Low prices also help, as evidenced in Brazil where flex-fuel vehicles now account for 90% of new cars and truck sales. Shell’s 45,000 stations around the world will pump biofuel to vehicles that can run on gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture of the two (Brazil mandates that all gasoline have at least a 20% ethanol component). As it stands, Brazilians are the end users of the vast majority of the ethanol that their country produces (about 25 billion liters annually). And you wouldn’t know it from most of the media, but ethanol is more than just an automotive matter…
Shaw Capital Management, Korea – Investment Innovation & Excellence. We provide the information; insight and expertise that you need to make the right investment choices. Shaw Capital Management Korea typically offers its clients such services as asset allocation and portfolio design; traditional and non-traditional manager review and selection; portfolio implementation; portfolio monitoring and consolidated performance reporting; and other wealth management services, including estate, tax, trust and insurance planning, asset custody, closely held business issues associated with the establishment or expansion of a family office, the formation of family investment partnerships or LLCs, philanthropy, family dynamics and inter-generation issues, etc.
shaw capital management:Be alert for scams at tax time
http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20110306/COLUMNISTS15/103060345/1003/business/Be-alert-scams-tax-time
by: Eileen Smith
This time of year, con artists go phishing, sending out fake e-mails in an attempt to reel in financial information from consumers.
The bait: your income tax return.
In fact, identity thefts related to taxes and payroll tripled from 2005 to 2009, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
That might be because people tend to pay attention when they receive a notice from the Internal Revenue Service.
But the truth is, the IRS does not initiate communications with taxpayers via e-mail. No exceptions. So, if you receive e-mail from someone claiming to be from the IRS you can assume it is fraudulent.
Don’t open it. And if you do open the e-mail, do not reply to it or click on any links it might contain.
If you receive an e-mail, phone call, fax or letter by snail mail from someone claiming to be an IRS employee, you can readily confirm if Uncle Sam is reaching out. Just call IRS at (800) 829-1040 and ask if the IRS needs to contact you.
Sometimes, it is easy to spot a fake. The message starts with “hi there” or another generic greeting rather than your name. The grammar ain’t good. And the graphics look like something your cat came up with after eating a box of crayons.
But some of these creeps are scarily slick, with official-sounding verbiage and professional presentation. It is better to err on the side of skepticism than to be sucked in to a scam.
Crooks keep coming up with new ways to rip off trusting people. This year, con artists have obtained financial information by offering free tax-filing services. The taxpayers received paperwork indicating a hefty refund — but the money was diverted to the bogus tax preparers, who were based in Belarus, a country in Eastern Europe whose primary natural resource is peat.
In another new wrinkle from Lowlife Land, scammers are contacting military families with a phony offer of a special tax benefits for people in the service that they can obtain by paying a fee. In truth, Uncle Sam doesn’t charge people to refund their money.
Other unwitting taxpayers were tricked into giving out their credit card numbers. The ruse? A shyster posing as the IRS sent out an e-mail — complete with realistic-looking government logo — offering to apply tax refunds directly to unpaid credit card bills.
Remember, the government doesn’t ask for detailed financial information, such as PIN numbers, passwords or answers to security questions for credit card, bank or other financial accounts.
The hassle quotient increases if someone steals your Social Security number and uses it to get a job. The IRS will likely assume you are earning more money than you actually are.
If you believe you might have been duped, go to www.IRS.gov and enter the search term “identity theft” for information on getting help.
It’s important to report incidents of fraud to keep other taxpayers from falling prey to con artists.
Eileen Smith offers commonsense insights on personal finance and career enrichment in her Sunday column. Reach her at (856) 486-2444
by: Eileen Smith
This time of year, con artists go phishing, sending out fake e-mails in an attempt to reel in financial information from consumers.
The bait: your income tax return.
In fact, identity thefts related to taxes and payroll tripled from 2005 to 2009, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
That might be because people tend to pay attention when they receive a notice from the Internal Revenue Service.
But the truth is, the IRS does not initiate communications with taxpayers via e-mail. No exceptions. So, if you receive e-mail from someone claiming to be from the IRS you can assume it is fraudulent.
Don’t open it. And if you do open the e-mail, do not reply to it or click on any links it might contain.
If you receive an e-mail, phone call, fax or letter by snail mail from someone claiming to be an IRS employee, you can readily confirm if Uncle Sam is reaching out. Just call IRS at (800) 829-1040 and ask if the IRS needs to contact you.
Sometimes, it is easy to spot a fake. The message starts with “hi there” or another generic greeting rather than your name. The grammar ain’t good. And the graphics look like something your cat came up with after eating a box of crayons.
But some of these creeps are scarily slick, with official-sounding verbiage and professional presentation. It is better to err on the side of skepticism than to be sucked in to a scam.
Crooks keep coming up with new ways to rip off trusting people. This year, con artists have obtained financial information by offering free tax-filing services. The taxpayers received paperwork indicating a hefty refund — but the money was diverted to the bogus tax preparers, who were based in Belarus, a country in Eastern Europe whose primary natural resource is peat.
In another new wrinkle from Lowlife Land, scammers are contacting military families with a phony offer of a special tax benefits for people in the service that they can obtain by paying a fee. In truth, Uncle Sam doesn’t charge people to refund their money.
Other unwitting taxpayers were tricked into giving out their credit card numbers. The ruse? A shyster posing as the IRS sent out an e-mail — complete with realistic-looking government logo — offering to apply tax refunds directly to unpaid credit card bills.
Remember, the government doesn’t ask for detailed financial information, such as PIN numbers, passwords or answers to security questions for credit card, bank or other financial accounts.
The hassle quotient increases if someone steals your Social Security number and uses it to get a job. The IRS will likely assume you are earning more money than you actually are.
If you believe you might have been duped, go to www.IRS.gov and enter the search term “identity theft” for information on getting help.
It’s important to report incidents of fraud to keep other taxpayers from falling prey to con artists.
Eileen Smith offers commonsense insights on personal finance and career enrichment in her Sunday column. Reach her at (856) 486-2444
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