Transcript
CFPB FinEx Webinar:  Identity theft and coronavirus scams
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Presenter:  Shameka Walker, U.S. Federal Trade Commission; and Lisa Schifferle, CFPB
Facilitator:  Heather Brown, Ed.D., CFPB FinEx Lead

 >>Dr. Heather Brown:  [In progress]—in the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.  During his time at the Commission, she's been involved in investigating and litigating consumer protection cases involving data security, privacy, work-at-home scam, and telemarketing fraud.  Ms. Walker was the lead attorney on the ashleymadison.com investigation that was resolved when the company that operated the website agreed to settle with the FTC, and she also was part of the teams that litigated data security cases against Wyndham Hotels and Smart Home products.  Prior to joining the FTC, Ms. Walker was a litigation associate at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP in Washington, D.C.  While in private practice, she participated in attorney loan programs where she served as a special assistant and was an attorney general for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General for about 7 months on loan.  In that position, she represented the District in several proceedings, including two jury trials.  She began her career serving as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Eric T. Washington of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.  Ms. Walker has received her J.D. from Cornell University where she was a note editor in Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.  She received her B.A. from the University of Miami.  We welcome Shameka Walker and look forward to her presentation, and we appreciate her giving her great expertise to us on this webinar today.

Now we also have returning Ms. Schifferle, speaking last month as well, and Ms. Schifferle was previously at the Federal Trade Commission.  She's currently now at the CFPB, and she works as a senior policy analyst in the Office of Older Americans.  Ms. Schifferle served as the FTC's Identity Theft program manager prior to coming here.  At the FTC, she regularly presented on scams, identity theft, and cybersecurity.  She also has litigated data security, privacy, and fraud cases, and before arriving at the FTC, she spent 8 years at Maryland's Legal Aid Bureau as a staff attorney and supervising attorney.  She received her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College and her J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School, and we welcome Ms. Schifferle back and are so excited to have both of you as speakers today.  I know that the participants will get a lot out of this presentation.

I'm going to quickly run through my preliminary slides, since we have two speakers, so we can jump right in.  First, our disclaimer.  This presentation is being made by a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau representative on behalf of the Bureau.  It does not constitute legal interpretation, guidance, or advice of the Bureau.  Any opinions or views stated by the presenter are the presenter's own and may not represent the Bureau's views.  The inclusion of links or references to third-party sites does not necessarily reflect the Bureau's endorsement of the third party, the views expressed on the third-party site, or products or services offered on the third-party site.  The Bureau has not vetted these third parties, their content, or any products or services they may offer.  There may be other possible entities or resources that are not listed that may also serve your needs, and this document, of course, is being used as part of a presentation.  So, if you actually pass it on to someone later, we put a disclaimer on so they understand they may not get the full ideas that were meant to be expressed in just the presentation.

While I'm mentioning that, I want to remind everybody to please mute if you're not already muted.  You should have been automatically muted when you came in, but you can look up your name on the participant list and check to see if it's been muted.

Secondly, I wanted to also let everyone know that if you are logged in and watching us live, we will be sending you a copy of the deck.  So you don't have to write in for it.  If for some reason you were unable to link to the slides and you're just on the telephone and you want a copy, please send an email to the email address that's actually in the chat, but I'll also tell you, since you may not be looking at it, it's cfpb_finex@cfpb.gov.

I also wanted to just mention the mission of the Bureau.  Many of you are probably already aware, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulates the offering and provision of consumer financial products and services under the Federal consumer financial laws.  We educate and empower consumers to make better informed financial decisions.

I'm just reminding people that we do have a very active coronavirus pandemic web page, which is linked to many, many resources and other Federal sites as well, such as the CDC and HUD.  So it could easily be a one-stop place for you to gather information not only on protecting your finances but also other issues related to coronavirus.

This web page represents a landing page you'll see when you come to the Adult Education page.  I want to let everyone know to ignore the link at the bottom for now.  We're actually going through some revisions and refresh of our web page, which will make it more user friendly for you, our audience, and hopefully, you'll be able to navigate more quickly and find what you're looking for.  But I did put the link to the new page in the actual chat as well, but for those that are used to navigating, now you go to Consumer Education first when you land on the main page.  Then you go to Educator Tools Overview and then to Adult Financial Education, but the link is also in the chat as well for those of you that hopefully may have already found your way there.

Okay.  With that, we've kind of covered the links that I talked about there.  We're going to move forward and hear from our keynote speaker for today, Shameka Walker, on identity theft, and after she speaks, then we will hear from our second keynote, Lisa Schifferle, who will speak on coronavirus scams.  Shameka, are you all set?  I'm going to send you the control.  Did you get it?

[No audible response.]

>>Dr. Brown:  You may be muted.  No, I don't see Shameka there.  It looks like perhaps she's on the call.  Can anyone hear me?

>>Ms. Shameka Walker:  I'm here.

>>Dr. Brown:  Oh, okay.  Great, great.  Wonderful.  Welcome, Shameka, and we look forward to your presentation.  Thanks.

>>Ms. Walker:  Okay.  Thank you.  Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining.  As Heather mentioned, my name is Shameka Walker, and I'll be talking to you about identity theft, specifically ways that you can teach your clients to combat identity theft.

I'll begin by discussing recent trends in identity theft, and then we'll go over tips to combat identity theft, which will include understanding identity theft, avoiding it, and then a brief overview of different types of identity theft.  We'll wrap up our discussion of identity theft by discussing advice from what you or your clients can do if you become a victim of identity theft, and I'll point you to some helpful resources.  So let's get started.

The Department of Justice released its most recent survey findings on identity theft in 2019.  According to the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics, 26 million people in the U.S. were victims of identity theft in 2016.  That's one out of every ten people age 16 and up, and the numbers are up from 17.6 million in 2014 when they last did the survey.  You can also see that losses from identity theft are huge, $17.5 billion in 2016 alone.  More recently at the FTC, where we take identity theft complaints, more than 650,000 people told us that they were identity theft victims last year in 2019.

Last year, the Consumer Sentinel Network took in over 3.2 million reports.  People filed more complaints about identity theft in all of its various forms than any other type of complaint.  Identity theft complaints accounted for over 20 percent of all reports.  Notably, people who reported their age, those age 20 to 29 reported losing money to fraud in 33 percent of reports filed with the FTC, while people age 70 to 79 reported losing money in 13 percent of the reports.  And people 80 and over reported it in just 11 percent of the reports.  But when they did experience a loss, people age 70 and older reported much higher median losses than any other group.

In 2019, credit card fraud topped the list of identity theft reports.  The FTC received more than 271,000 reports from people who said their information was used on an existing account or to open a new credit card account.

Now let's take a look at what we've been seeing so far this year with respect to identity theft reports.  This graph charts data as of September 30th or through September 30th of 2020.  The year is almost over, and we'll have new data for the last quarter soon, but these are the top seven complain categories for 2020, and the categories include bank fraud, credit card fraud, employment or tax-related fraud, government documents or benefits fraud, loan or lease fraud, other identity theft, and phone or utilities fraud.  Every category is increasing compared to last year, but the most dramatic increase is with government documents or benefits fraud, which is the aqua-colored line that you see here, especially unemployment insurance benefits theft.  As you can see, the line looks pretty flat from 2016 to 2019, but then there was a huge spike this year.  These dramatic increases with all of the different types of identity theft could very well be related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since January of this year until yesterday, December 16th, the FTC has received 39,395 identity theft reports that mention COVID, stimulus, or related terms in the identity theft subcategories of tax, unemployment and wage, government benefits, and government documents.  We've seen an increase in tax identity theft reports, which is the red line, which appears to be driven by concerns about the economic impact payments that occurred earlier this year or were given out earlier this year, and now that there appears or there's, I guess, discussion to be another found of stimulus checks coming to consumers, I'm sure the identity theft reports that relate to tax identity theft will spike again next quarter.  We've also seen over 150 percent increase in tax fraud reports when you compare the first two quarters of 2019 to the first two quarters of 2020 when people are filing reports.  We're still in the process of analyzing this data, but this dramatic increase in tax fraud reports may be related to the fact that the IRS asked people to report identity theft involving their economic impact payments as tax fraud.  So for the third quarter, the numbers started to go down again, but that's likely because people were no longer receiving those payments.  But as I just mentioned, the news reports that there may be another stimulus check coming to consumers soon.

So it's important to share with your clients that identity theft can take many forms.  It could be someone opening a credit card or utility account in your name or someone using your information to get a loan or job or medical care or to get a tax refund.  The important thing to remember is that whatever form identity theft takes, the impact on victims can be substantial, and it can lead to serious problems.  If someone is using your information or your client's information to get credit, you yourself might be denied credit like a mortgage for a house.  You can be denied public benefits like disability benefits.  Someone else could use your Social Security number to work.  You can be harassed by debt collectors for debts that aren't yours, and you can even be denied medical care or receive improper treatment.

Identity theft is one of those crimes that start off—it might start off with a discovery that someone opened up a credit card account in your name, but then months later, you learn that other accounts were opened or that information was misused for other purposes.

We discussed trends in identity theft, but what exactly is identity theft?  Generally speaking, identity theft is the misuse of another person's personal information to fraudulent obtain goods or services or hide from the government, law enforcement or others who perform background checks.  If someone steals your identity, there could be a tremendous impact in your life, as I highlighted in the last slide.

Good old-fashioned identity theft includes losing your wallet or having it stolen, and unfortunately, it doesn't have to necessarily be stolen by a stranger.  Family members or friends could also be the culprit.  Thieves can also steal your identity by dumpster diving, sifting through trash of discarded documents, or buying it from a corrupt insider at a bank or hotel or anywhere you've done business.

Some more sophisticated ways thieves can gain access to your client's personal information is by skimming and shimming, data breaches, and by phishing or imposter scams.  I'll talk a little bit about skimming and shimming in a moment, and after that, I'll briefly discuss data breaches.  I'm not going to talk a ton about phishing and imposter scams.  Lisa will cover that in her presentation next, but I'll just say that phishing happens when you get an email or text that seems to be from someone you know asking you to click on a link and asking you to give a password or your bank account information or some other kind of sensitive information, and usually, it's pressuring you to act fast or something bad will happen if you don't.  Those imposter scams come in many varieties, but they work in the same way as scammers pretending to be someone you know or trust to convince you to send them money.

Skimming is a process by which a thief places a device on a credit card reader.  It's usually at a gas pump at a gas station or ATM, and it intercepts the magnetic strip information from your credit card.  This allows a thief to copy a customer's credit card number and information and sell it or use it to purchase goods.  Bank cards with magnetic strips can be used to create a credit card with the information.

This slide depicts an image of a hidden camera in an ATM machine.  It helps illustrate why it's important to protect or cover your PIN as you enter it on a keypad.

As more convenient stores and gas stations accept the chip card, which most of them should have by now, but there's still a few that are lagging behind, fewer of these gas stations or stores are requiring customers to swipe their card, and instead, you have to insert your chip card.  As a result, thieves have become more creative, and that's where the shimming comes in.  And that's when it's kind of like an updated version of skimming.  It's a process where fraudsters insert a shim into the card reader that allows them to copy the chip card information.  They can't use that information to create another chip card, but they can use it to make a magnetic strip card to use online or at least retailers that have not upgraded to the chip cards.

In order to reduce the possibility of being a victim of identity theft via shimming, you should tell your clients to use credit cards as opposed to debt cards whenever possible, and while it's less convenient, instead of using an ATM located outside of the bank or paying at the pump, go inside of the bank or store for your transaction.  You clients should also review their statements carefully and report anything suspicious as soon as they notice something.  Like I mentioned a few moments ago, when they enter their PINs and devices, they should cover the keypad.  Finally, ask them to consider other payment methods that don't require the use of a card like ApplePay or AndroidPay.

Unfortunately, data breaches are very common these days, and just another way identity thieves can gain access to your client's information, if any of your clients recently received a notice that said their personal information was exposed in a data breach or if they answered—or that one of their accounts were hacked online, direct them to identitytheft.gov/databreach.  This website provides steps for your clients to take to help protect and recover from identity theft, but there are some ways that your clients can reduce their risk of identity theft, and I'll go over those things briefly now.

The first thing is don't carry your Social Security card in your wallet or write your Social Security number down on a check or any kind of document.  You should only give out your Social Security number if it's absolutely necessary.  You can always ask the person asking for it if they have another identifier that they can use instead of your Social Security number.  You should shred all of your financial documents and paperwork with personal information before you discard them.  Don't just throw it in the trash.  You need to shred it first.  Don't give out personal information on the phone, through mail, or over the internet unless you are sure who you are dealing with.  Also, never click on links of unsolicited email.  Instead, type in the web address that you know.  Don't use obvious passwords, your mother's maiden name.  Everybody knows that people usually use the mother's maiden name, and people probably will know your mother's maiden name.  So it's not a good idea to use that as a password.  The last four digits of your Social Security number is not a good idea either.  Those are all obvious passwords.  You should keep your personal information in a secure place at home, especially if you have other people coming into your home like employees or if you have roommates or other people that live with you or if you have a contractor there doing work at your house.  You should always shred paperwork with personal information before you—I'm sorry.  That's my last point for this one.

Another step or other steps that clients can take and I think one of the best thins that clients can do to avoid identity theft is to monitor accounts often and check the mail.  Check your mail for statements or accounts for credit cards you didn't open, and make sure that statements that you're receiving in the mail are actually—or I guess in your email as well, that these are statements that you're actually expecting.  So, if you see something that doesn't look like it belongs or a card that you don't have that's assigned, that you may have been a victim of identity theft.  It's also critical for your clients to continue to monitor their credit reports.  One of the most important steps someone can take to protect themselves is to monitor their credit report to make sure there are no signs of identity theft, like unauthorized accounts open in your name, new addresses on your report.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act, or the FCRA, requires that each of the nationwide credit reporting companies, which are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, that they provide you with a free copy of your credit report at your request once every 12 months, and now due to the pandemic, you can check your credit report every week for free through April of 2021 at annualcreditreport.com.  So if you check your reports often, this can help you spot any new fraud quickly.

New clients can also help avoid identity theft by following some basic tips to protect their files and devices such as keeping anti-virus software up to date.  It's not enjoy just to have the virus software on your computer, but you should regularly update the software to make sure checking for viruses on your computer and all your other devices as well.  As I mentioned before, you should use a difficult-to-guess password with numbers, letters, uppercase and lowercase, and look for indications that online shopping sites are secure.

So a couple years ago, new laws were put in place that were designed to help your clients avoid any theft.  For example, fraud alerts, which I'll discuss more in the next slide, now lasts for one year instead of 90 days, and credit freezers are free for everyone, including children under 16 and incapacitated adults.  Finally, active-duty military personnel have access to free credit monitoring, and credit monitoring services can alert your clients to mistakes or problems with their credit reports that might stem from unauthorized use of their personal information.  The active-duty alert gives military personnel added benefits.  The credit reporting agency will take their names off of marketing lists and prescreen credit card offers for 2 years.

Here are some other options to consider if your client or you yourself become a victim of identity theft or if you just want to be proactive to avoid identity theft.  You should consider a fraud alert or a credit freeze.  Which of these options you ultimately decide upon depends on your circumstance.  A fraud alert tells businesses that they check in with you before they can open a new account, and since 2018, fall of 2018, when you place a fraud alert, it will last a year instead of 90 days.  Fraud alerts are free, and if you are an identity theft victim, you can get that extended for 7 years instead of 1 year, as it lists here on the slide.

In order to place a fraud alert or a credit freeze, you'll have to contact the credit bureaus.  Here is the contact information for all three nationwide credit reporting agencies, both the website and the phone number.  If you request a freeze online or by phone, the agency must place the freeze within one business day.  If you request a lift of the freeze, the agency must lift it within one hour.  If you make your request by mail, the agency must place or lift the freeze within 3 business days after it gets your request.  You can also lift the freeze temporarily without a fee.

So young people now have more protections from identification theft and fraud, thanks to that same law that was enacted 2 years ago.  The law lets parents and child welfare representatives, people under 16, as well as legal guardians request a credit freeze on their behalf.  Taking this step can help protect a young person from identity theft and fraud, and it's free.

So I think I mentioned earlier, there are multiple forms of identity theft, but I'll just go over a few of those here today.  Tax identity theft is one of the major forms of identity theft.  It's when someone files a fraudulent tax return using a Social Security number, and the reason why they're doing that is to get a refund, so basically to claim your tax refund for themselves.  To do this, all they need is your Social Security number, which you can buy in the black market, and then they can file for a refund.  So you don't really find out about it until you try to get your own tax refund, and then the IRS gives you a notification saying that there is a duplicate filing.  Tax identity theft is essentially a tax refund fraud, but this slide also lists a few other types of identity theft that are included under the umbrella of tax identity theft, which includes when someone claims your children as dependents or when someone claims a refund using a deceased taxpayer's information.   It could also include when someone earns wages under your Social Security number, and then when you file a tax return listing wages you actually earn, the IRS asks why you didn't pay for these other taxes for the wages they have under your Social Security number.

To reduce your risk of tax identity theft, it is important to follow some good filing practices.  For example, you should know your tax preparer and file your return as early as possible, and when it comes to actually sending your return to the State or the IRS, don't put them in the actual outgoing mail.  You should go directly to the post office instead, and if you file them electronically, make sure you use a secure network.  Finally, you should securely store any of your tax returns and shred any drafts.

I mentioned this earlier when I showed the graph of the different types of identity theft and the trends that we've seen this year in 2020 at the FTC, but since the start of the pandemic, we've been hearing about widespread fraud where imposters have been filing claims for unemployment benefits using the names and personal information of people who have not yet filed claims.  So fraud has hit a number of States.  It's being investigated by several Federal law enforcement agencies as well as State agencies, and I'll talk a little bit more later about how to report this type of identity theft to the FTC, but we're advising people to report this fraud immediately to their State unemployment benefits office, employer, and local police.  Now, again, that there is news that unemployment benefits might be extended, I'm sure that this kind of identity theft will continue into the new year.

Children can also be victims of identity theft.  Minors typically don't have credit reports, which means that if a young person might not find out about issues with their credit reports until they try to get credit themselves, probably years later.  On this slide, here's some warning signs for children that have been victims of identity theft or they might become victims of identity theft.  If they start receiving credit card offers—and I also want to highlight the possibility of a breach at school or within the child's school district, especially now, because so many children are learning virtually due to the pandemic.

Familial identity theft is another form of identity theft.  It's just when families steal the child's identity.  A lot of times, it's harder to correct.  There's a lot of issues surrounding that with the family member is usually the person that would help a child recover from identity theft if they had become a victim, but in this case, it could be the family member who actually was the perpetrator.  Also, sometimes you have to take into consideration that the stopping the identity theft might cause greater harm if there's poverty-related issues in a home, and then especially—assuming that the child is old enough to even realize what's going on, that child may not want to file a police report against his or her mom or dad.  Also, children who are in foster care are more susceptible to identity theft, and it's harder to remedy for a number of reasons.

Because of this fact, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act of 2011 provides that child welfare agencies must determine whether foster children, ages 16 and older, have a credit file and also require child welfare agencies to resolve any inaccuracies in the credit reports.  This obligation continues until the child is emancipated from foster care.

If your client has a young person in their life, there may be some ways to correct the errors on the report.  If the child is over the age of 18 when the debt is incurred, then he or she can u se the FCRA, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act, remedies for adult identity theft victims.  If the child is under 18, they need to show that they were a minor and therefore had no capacity to enter into a contract.  You can report child identity theft and get recovery steps on identitytheft.gov.

What happens in the event that you or one of your clients becomes a victim of identity theft?  I've been talking about this website for quite sometime now.  We encourage you to identitytheft.gov, which is the Federal Government's one-stop resource for identity theft victims to both and recover from identity theft.  I'll walk you through what that looks like.

We've added new graphics here for additional recovery steps to identitytheft.gov.  You can see in the upper right-hand corner, it says "Unemployment Benefits Identity Theft, Click Here to Report," and we added this here because of all the new reports that we had seen related to the pandemic that I discussed earlier, and so you'll also see in the upper right-hand corner above that flag for "Unemployment Benefits Identity Theft," that the website and the resources contained with in it are both in English and in Spanish.

So once you click on the Get Started button on the home page, then you will next have to pick a statement that best describes your situation.  You'll see here that there is now a statement that reflects the economic stimulus payment that consumers received due to the pandemic.  Like I mentioned, I think there's reports that there may be another round of payments coming.  This option still remains on identitytheft.gov.

As you select which one best describes your situation, if you happen to pick there's a tax identity theft, you can now report both your tax identity theft to the FTC and the IRS at the same time through this website, and I'll walk you through how to do that.  But this is a quick screen that you'll see if you type in identitytheft.gov on your computer, and then as you get started, you would get to the next screen.

These are just you create an account, and it literally walks you through the step-by-step process of reporting your identity theft and having ticks to recover from the theft.  

Here is an example of identity theft reports.

Identitytheft.gov will pre-populate this form.  It will also pre-populate the FTC identity theft report based on all the information you input on the precious screens.  So everything will be set for you, and you'll actually be able to send the IRS affidavit directly to the IRS, and it makes the process really easy for consumers.  The IRS actually just updated this form a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know if you'll be able to see it, but it says December 2020 in the upper left-hand corner.

This is an example of a simple personal recovery plan for someone who has reported identity theft involving their bank account.  When you click on the arrow at the end of each step of the plan, the site will provide advice about how to carry out the next step.  For example, here the system advises to place a fraud alert on your credit reports.  When the person clicks on the arrow at the end of the line, it will get links to each of the three credit bureaus.  The system will also explain that a fraud alert is free and will make it harder for someone to open a new account in the person's name.  It will also tell the person to keep an eye out and make certain to get a letter from each of the credit bureaus confirming that they had placed a fraud alert on the person's file.  For each recovery step, the system then provides follow-ups and reminders.

For example, here it's a reminder to send a follow-up letter to Bank of America, and you can see that this step, that the system already created the follow-up letter, and it just prefills with the information the person has already provided.  So all the person has to do is to review the letter, print it out, and mail it.

The system also creates letters for people to send to the credit reporting agencies, debt collectors, merchants, and others to resolve the theft, and here is an example of a follow-up letter to a lender where a fraudulent account was open in a victim's name.  You'll see in the upper right-hand corner, the letter has identitytheft.gov logo showing the person has reported the identity theft to the FTC.  Then in the lower left-hand corner, the letter lists enclosures that the person will need to send to speed the resolution of their claim.

So this is just another example of how the system automatically creates some prefilled letters that you can send to the credit bureaus and businesses, and it's pretty simple.  You just need to print the letter, sign them, and mail them.

Finally, there are a number of—so identitytheft.gov is like the best tool I think that we have at the FTC, but we have more tools.  Encourage your clients to visit consumer.gov.  It's the FTC website for consumer information.  It provides some consumer protection basics.  It's really simple and easy to follow, and there, you can learn more information about getting and checking your credit report.  There are also tips and information about scams and identity theft.

Also, we have a number of free publications, several on identity theft, including child identity theft, and there's also one on the related topic of data breaches, and if you don't want them in print form or if you're not seeing your clients in person to give them these documents, you can download them on PDF.

So, with that, I'll pass it to Lisa Schifferle who will talk about coronavirus scams, older adults, and the financial protection.

>>Dr. Brown:  Thank you so much for that wonderful presentation, Shameka, very informative and lots of good information.  I wanted to let you know that we got six questions related to your presentation, and I've just put them up in the chat.  So you can, hopefully, review them and then be ready to follow up when Lisa is done with her presentation.  Does that sound good?

>>Ms. Walker:  Yes, that sounds good.

>>Dr. Brown:  Okay.  Thank you again.  We'll look forward to having you back for the questions in a few minutes.  Okay.  Next, we're going to hear from Lisa Schifferle on the coronavirus scams, and she's going to physically talk about some that are related to older adults as well as things that we all need to be careful for.  Lisa, are you all set?

>>Ms. Lisa Schifferle:  Yes.  Thanks so much, Heather, and thanks, Shameka, for that great presentation about identity theft.  I'm going to focus on the coronavirus-related scams and talk about how to help people who are dealing with the financial impact of the pandemic.  I'm going to share a little bit about what we're doing at the national level, which hopefully will make your jobs easier as financial professionals.

Heather already mentioned consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus is our central hub with resources for consumers to help them manage their finances during the pandemic.  It's available in a variety of different languages, and it covers topics like credit and debt management, student loan repayment, mortgage relief options, scams, online and mobile banking tips, and more. 

We also have a unified housing website that we've done with these to her Federal Government agencies listed here, and this is one that is used for people who may be behind in their mortgage or behind on their rent to learn about the options that are available to them, and I'm going to discuss some of those options in a minute, but this site, you can find at consumerfinance.gov/housing.  It's a really great resource for anyone who is dealing with the financial impact of the pandemic as it relates to their housing.

Now I'm going to start by talking about some coronavirus-related scams focusing on health care scams, which is one of the big categories that we're seeing.  At first, we were looking at fake vaccine scams.  Now, thankfully, there are real vaccines that are available, but scammers have now shifted so that they are taking advantage of this.  So now we're warning people to be on the lookout for scammers who may call to lure you in with promises of early access to vaccines, and I'm pleased to remind clients and the people that you're working with not to pay for promises of early access to the vaccines and not to give personal information over the phone like Social Security numbers, bank or credit card numbers, in order to get a vaccine.  You should not have to do that.

There are also scams related to test kits, fake cures, or treatments, including air filter systems that people say will filter coronavirus out of your home.  Those are scams as well.  So we are warning people, as is the FTC, that if you get a phone call, email, or text message claiming to sell one of these items that it is a scam.

Another big area are the government imposter scams.  People who are on Medicare may get calls claiming to get special access to testing or treatments because of Medicare, but that's a scam.  Medicare is not offering that kind of special access at this time.

On the right-hand side, you'll see a "Contact tracing call?" infographic.  This is actually from the FTC and warns people similarly that contact tracers may call you, but scammers may also call you pretending to be contact tracers and ask for personal information.  So people should know the real contact tracers are not going to ask for money.  They're not going to ask for Social Security number, bank or credit card number.

Another scam look out for both in relation to the coronavirus and also at holiday times are charity-related scams.  We warn people not to pay by cash, gift card, or money transfer to someone who calls claiming to be from a charity.  Those are methods of scammers because they know that it's hard for you to get your money back if you pay that way.  We encourage people instead to visit the organization's website directly or ask the charity or supposed charity to send something in the mail, because legitimate charities will do that in the mail.

Another one I want to talk about, another type of scam that we're seeing—and this one specifically, especially affects older adults but also people who may be confined to their homes during the pandemic—is what we call the "errand helper scam," and that's when scammers offer to help you with your errands.  They say they'll buy groceries or do other errands for you, but then they run off with the money and do not get the things that they said they were going to get.  So we are reminding people who are working with older adults to encourage them to find a trusted friend or neighbor to do those errands if they don't have one.  The Eldercare Locator at eldercare.acl.gov or 800-677-1116 is a good way to try to find reputable help during the pandemic and also at other times.

The bottom line for any of these types of imposter scams is that if anyone calls you asking for your Social Security number or bank account number or credit card, Medicare number, or other personal information like that, do not give it out over the phone if someone is calling you out of the blue asking for that information.  Also, be very weary of anyone who calls asking for you to pay by gift card, wire transfer, or one of these peer-to-peer apps, because again those can be harder to get your money back.

I do want to point out some resources that the CFPB has specifically for older adults and people working with older adults.  We have a series of blogs on coronavirus resources, including tips for financial caregivers.  If you're unable to be with someone whose money you help manage, then it offers tips about using video chat or phone as well as consulting our guides on managing someone else's money.  We also have online and mobile banking tips for older adults who may be getting into online banking for the first time during the pandemic, and then we have information on planning for an uncertain future to make sure that both parties in a relationship know what's going on with the finances so that if something happens to one of them, the other one is able to take over and carry on.  I'm going to talk more about protections for renters during the pandemic in a minute.  So I'll save that for a later slide in the interest of time, but we also have information about considering early retirement withdrawals and the CARES Act protections, which eliminate that early withdrawal penalty.

Finally and not on this slide but very important, just today we released a new blog about reverse mortgage scams, which can happen when a caregiver coerces an older, elderly homeowner into applying for a reverse mortgage loan or maybe somebody impersonates the elderly relative and basically commits ID theft during the loan process or use the older homeowner's Social Security number or other personal information to apply for a reverse mortgage loan.  So that blog has tips about how to avoid those types of scams, including making sure that you don't get a reverse mortgage just because a contractor says it's the best way to pay for home improvements.  That was the big issue that I saw as a legal services attorney.  Again, reverse mortgage scams are another one to keep an eye out for during the pandemic.

Now that I've covered some of the basic scams that we're seeing during the pandemic, I also want to talk about how to help people who are dealing with the financial impact of the pandemic and for people having trouble paying bills, which is a lot of people right now.  There are a number of options, but it's really important to make sure that they know to contact their lenders, loan servicers, and other creditors and talk to them to work something out, to not just think that it's going to be taken care of because it's pandemic-related or just hide the head in the sand because you're worried about it.  It's very important to actually contact the lenders.  Many credit card companies and lenders are offering options to help like waiving ATM fees, overdraft fees, late fees, allowing people to delay, adjust, or skip payments.  This slide shows some of the items that people should be prepared to explain when they are requesting a modification to their payment schedule, like what their employment situation is, how much they can pay, when they can start those payments, and that they are experiencing a hardship related to COVID.

Now, the CFPB has a special focus on the mortgage relief options and a lot of the options that are available to homeowners and renters.  Again, you can find that information on the housing hub at consumerfinance.gov/housing.  This slide shows a really helpful video that we have explaining mortgage forbearance, which I'll talk about in a minute, but before I get into all the mortgage-related protections, I do want to take a moment to mention for renters that there are protections as well.  First, it's important to check with the State and local governments.  Check with the State Attorney General because many States have issued eviction bans during the pandemic, and also check with local legal services.  Second, the CDC, you've probably heard has an eviction moratorium until December 31st of this year, and renters have to present a CDC form saying that they're behind on their rent due to the pandemic.  It has certain income restrictions, like you have to make less than $99,000 or $198,000 for joint filers.  So there's that restriction.  Hopefully, that will be extended beyond December 31st, but right now, it is until December 31st.

Beyond that, renters should look for action from Congress on CARES Act extensions.  As Shameka mentioned, there is a pending $900 billion package which would extend for closure and eviction moratoriums until January 31st.  It would also provide $25 billion in rental assistance, add an additional 16 weeks of unemployment benefits, and extend student loan forbearance until April 1st.  So we will all be keeping our eyes out for what happens with that.

But in the meantime, the existing protections under the CARES Act are two for mortgage holders.  The first is there is a foreclosure moratorium, and FHFA on its own has extended that until at least January 31st of next year.  So that means lenders and servicers cannot begin a judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure against you if you are in a home with a federally backed mortgage that FHFA provides.  he second thing that people have is a mortgage forbearance option, where they can request a forbearance of 180 days and then extend it for another 180 days.

You all as financial educators are probably familiar with forbearance.  If not, I would encourage you and your clients to check out this forbearance video at consumerfinance.gov/housing, but basically, the forbearance is when the mortgage servicer or lender allows you to temporarily pay your mortgage at a lower rate or pause paying your mortgage.  In the case of the forbearance for COVID, there is no documentation of hardship that is required.  A lot of people asked that, whether they're going to have to prove that it's a COVID-related issue that they're behind on a mortgage.  You don't have to prove it.  You do have to assert it, though.  It's not going to happen automatically.  So people do have to know to contact their mortgage servicer.

Again, these are for federally backed loans.  It's important to first figure out who your mortgage servicer is, and if they're federally backed, then these things apply.  If they're not federally backed, still do contact the mortgage servicer because many of them are offering similar types of protections.

Now, I do want to also talk about dealing with debt because a lot of people are dealing with debt in addition to housing-related issues during the pandemic, and it's important that people know their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and first that they also know to contact the people they owe money to, to try to work something out, but under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they're not allowed to be harassed by the debt collectors.  The debt collectors can't call them at all hours or curse at them or threaten them.  So there are protections under Federal law to protect people from harassing debt collectors.

Also important to note to beware of debt settlement companies and to use reputable people if you are trying to work out your debts and to consult with credit counselors about that.

Lastly, I just want to mention about protecting your credit during the coronavirus pandemic.  As Shameka mentioned due to COVID until April 2021, anyone can get free weekly credit reports at annualcreditreport.com.  We do encourage people to do that not only to check for identity theft but also because when you do make that forbearance agreement or any other sort of agreement with a lender, the furnisher is supposed to then report that to the credit reporting company so that there is an indicator on your credit report that there is an agreement in place that's COVID-related.  And if you are not behind on your payment schedule before then, then it should appear as current with a note that there is a COVID-related forbearance.  So it's very important to check that the CRAs are actually making those flags on your credit report by checking your credit regularly, and if they're not, you can file a complaint with the CFPB.

And I will show you contact information for that on this slide, which is consumerfinance.gov/complaint.  Usually, at the CFPB, we can get you a response within 15 days in terms of getting a response to any complaints filed with us, and it would be good to file complaints if you have any issues with the credit reporting companies or with lenders related to this coronavirus-related relief under the CARES Act or otherwise.  Again, for additional information about where to get help, please do consult consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus.

And with that, I will turn it back to Heather so that we can have some time to take your questions.

>>Dr. Brown:  Thank you, Lisa.  That was really helpful and very interesting.  I see that you have one question in the chat from Randy, and it's about SBA loans and some issues he's seen around that.  So you might want to review that.

Also, I had a question that I wanted to throw out that I hear a lot which is, what happens to the mortgage payments that were in forbearance?  Are they tacked on at the end?  Some people feel like they're due all at once at the end, and then some people feel like they don't have to pay them.  So I thought maybe, if you would like to, you could comment on that.

>>Ms. Schifferle:  Yes.

>>Dr. Brown:  So I'd thought we'd jump back and have Shameka answer her questions, and that will give you some time.  After hers are done, we'll get to you.  Does that sound good?

>>Ms. Schifferle:  Sure.

>>Dr. Brown:  Okay.  Thank you so much.  Shameka, you're up now if you're ready to answer the questions you have.

>>Ms. Walker:  Sure.  Do you me to answer them not in the chat but right now over the phone?  Right?

>>Dr. Brown:  Yes, please.

>>Ms. Walker:  Okay.  So I'll try to go back.  So someone asked a question about whether you can place a fraud alert and a credit freeze at the same time.  You have to choose one.  I will drop a link in the chat, a blog post at FTC that shows you the difference between the two and explains it more, but you choose one.

The next question is, do you know where a person can get the credit report request forms and report in Spanish?  So I'm assuming the person means the credit reports from annualcreditreport.com.  You can just go there and you can contact them and ask for an accommodation to see if they provide the information in Spanish and English.  If you're reporting identity theft, of course, the FTC, that is available in Spanish.  You just click on the button in the top right-hand corner.  It will be in Spanish for you.

With respect to the pamphlets on child identity theft or any of the pamphlets that we have, you can go to ftc.gov/bulkorder—and I can write this in the chat too—and that's where you can either order these pamphlets or you can download them in PDF, and it's free.

Then there's another question about Social Security number.  A friend's child had a Social Security number taken.  Mine would be to report that to identitytheft.gov as soon as possible.  Generally speaking, it takes a long time to clear your credit report.  So, even if it is a child, you want to make sure things are rectified by the time that child is an adult or gets a driver's license and needs a car or going to college.  So I would not take that lightly.  Any kind of identity theft that you see or you know of that's happened to a child, I would report it immediately.

I think those are all of the questions.  Let me just scroll up to make sure I didn't miss anything.

>>Dr. Brown:  Yes.  I think you got them all, Shameka.  Thank you.

>>Ms. Walker:  Okay.  So is it okay for me to put in that chat box the link to the blog post that has a good article about how to tell the difference between the two?  Actually, Lisa wrote it.
 
>>Dr. Brown:  Absolutely.  Any resources like that are helpful.  Thank you.

>>Ms. Walker:  Okay.  I'll do that now.

>>Dr. Brown:  Great.  Lisa, this is Heather.  Are you ready to answer your question?

>>Ms. Schifferle:  Sure.  There was one question about a phony SBA loan applications and what to do about people filing phony applications for SBA disaster loans, and the person says they aren't getting information back from the SBA about what happened.  It sounds like there could be some business compromise and business-related identity theft.  So I would encourage you both to report it to the FTC through identitytheft.gov and also to the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov/complaints.  You can also fine more information about what to do about disaster-related loans and those PPP loans at consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus.

Someone else asked about a forbearance, and that's a really good question about what happens to the money in the forbearance.  It is important to advise people that it doesn't erase what they owe.  They don't get forgiven that money forever.  They just don't have to pay it for a certain period of time.  Usually, it's put at the end of the loan, and for the COVID-related forbearance, it's supposed to be put at the end of the loan in equal installments.  It's important if you're advising someone to make sure that they do not end up with a forbearance where there is a huge lump-sum payment at the end of the loan that they're not going to be able to make rather than it's better to have it spread out over—a regular payment over months, because if they get a huge lump sum, then they may end up in foreclosure when that lump sum becomes due.  So that's a great question and good thing to keep an eye on, and again, I would direct people to that housing website, consumerfinance.gov/housing, in order to get more information.  There are four different videos about forbearances and things to keep in mind there.

>>Dr. Brown:  Thank you, Lisa.  Appreciate that.  We also just got another question that was sent in.  I think somebody said that the page says "not found" on the bulk orders.  I think they're speaking of the bulk orders for the FTC.  So, if that's correct, maybe we could put up the bulk order location for that, and maybe it's for the one that I put up.  I'm not sure which.  Let me check that.  I'll check both links.  I'll tell you what, whoever wrote that—

>>Ms. Schifferle:  You can also try bulkorder.ftc.gov.  Sometimes that's better.

>>Ms. Walker:  Yeah.  I think at the end, it says ftc.gov/bulkorders.  It's just "bulkorder."

>>Dr. Brown:  Okay.  Thank you for that.  I typed it wrong.  I apologize.  So just take the "s" off, and it should work for you.  Let me see if there's any other questions that have popped up.  If not, we'll wrap up.  I don't see any more.

Tracey, do you see any additional questions?

>>Ms. Tracey Wade:  Heather, I'm just taking a look right now, and no, I do not see any further questions.

>>Dr. Brown:  Okay.  Wonderful!  Well, again, I'd like to thank our speakers today for this wonderful information.  We'll make sure everybody that's logged in gets a copy of the slides, and if you are just on the phone, if you write the cfpb_finex@cfpb.gov, which is the third link on this slide, and ask for the slides, we can provide those.  If anybody on this call does not get the announcements directly to their mailbox for these webinars and would like to, they can also write that mailbox and ask to be put on the mailing list.

Thank you, Marian [phonetic], for our kind words about the meeting, and I'd also like to thank Tracey Wade for being our technician and event manager for this event and also people on her team, Isabel Bailey and Susan Funk.  I thank the three of you for being here to support this webinar.

Let's see.  We have a question.  What is the email to ask and get on the list?  I don't know if you can see the slide, but in case you can't, it's the third link on this slide, cfpb_finex@cfpb.gov.  I'll stick it in the chat as well.

It looks like that is everything.  So I think we're ready to sign off now.  So thank everyone for attending.  It looks like we had a great—and a peak, about 413 attendees.  We won't be having a session in January, but we will be having at least one webinar in February, which I will let you know more about closer to that date.  So I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.  There's lots of kudos to you, Lisa and Shameka, for the great presentation, and I concur with that.  Everybody take care and stay safe, and I look forward to connecting with all of you in the new year.  Take care.  Bye-bye.

[End of recorded session.]