The CARES Act was the first of three major COVID-relief packages that have infused the US economy with stimulus funds provided for items like direct payments, new and expanded tax credits, forgivable business loan programs, and extended unemployment insurance. Identity thieves responded by deploying a host of scams that try to steal those federal dollars from hard-hit Americans, leading to a near-constant stream of alerts from the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission.…

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The Department of Labor reported a staggering 75.9 million initial unemployment insurance benefits claims from January 5, 2020 to January 2, 2021. The number of weekly claims spiked in March, underscoring the devastating financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and creating millions of first-time unemployment recipients who might not realize that those benefits are taxable.…

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