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Claim your government accounts before someone else does
Why it matters: Criminals with your details can open these accounts in your name to redirect refunds, benefits or mail. Opening them yourself, with MFA, closes that door.
Do it
- Request an Identity Protection PIN from the IRS website; it stops someone else filing a tax return with your number.
- Create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov. It signs in through Login.gov or ID.me, so protect that sign-in with a passkey or authenticator app.
- Sign up for USPS Informed Delivery so you see your mail before it arrives and notice anything you weren't expecting.
- Save each login in your password manager.
Check it worked: Each adult has an IRS Identity Protection PIN, a my Social Security account and a USPS Informed Delivery account, all protected by MFA.
Simply put
It's like putting your own name on the mailbox before someone else claims it. An IRS IP PIN and your own Social Security account, protected with MFA, make fake tax returns and benefit changes much harder, and Informed Delivery shows mail before it arrives.
In detail
The IRS issues a new IP PIN every year. If you signed up yourself, no letter comes: you retrieve each year's PIN from your IRS Online Account. These accounts complement the credit freeze, which doesn't cover tax, benefits or mail.
Points toward the Long View: official accounts in your name that only you control.