(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The US Treasury wants to get to know you! [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-24
How the US Treasury scammed me out of $1000 and grabbed my face.
So I owned a couple of stocks, the market was looking iffy, and I decided to sell them and buy a T-bill from the US Treasury. I opened an account at TreasuryDirect.gov, providing my personal identifiers and my banking information.
The Treasury website was fairly complex, and I transferred an opening $1000 from my bank into the Treasury account so I could see it moving around the account and be sure that I understood how it worked. My intention was to participate in next week’s Treasury auction. So far so good!
Then I received the email: your account has been locked.
No reason was given, only instructions what I had to do to get the lock lifted. This involved downloading and printing out forms, taking these to my bank, and having an officer there witness my signature. This was a problem, since I bank by mail; there is no physical building that I know of, and besides, I have no time for such foolishness. It’s my money, just close this account and remit the balance back to my bank.
However, there was a solution. I entered the queue on the TreasuryDirect website, which informed me that I needed to speak to someone on the phone (no email support), and that representatives were standing by to assist me. This assertion was repeated ad infinitum, part of the most irritating wait track ever, until I gave up after waiting almost an hour. Your phone company or cable company’s call centers are weak amateurs compared to the US Treasury’s.
Online forums (search “Treasury account locked”) revealed that my problem was shared by others. Many had unsuccessfully waited hours for the elusive representatives. A few had actually gotten their call answered eventually, only for the representative to say they could not help them. There were no success stories.
But that was only the beginning…
When I filed my federal tax return for 2022, I was due a refund. But instead of seeing the refund credited to my bank account as usual, I received a notification that I needed to provide additional identification. The fact that I had filed federal tax returns for decades didn’t make any difference, nor the fact that the refund was my own money, having overpaid estimated taxes.
They needed more identification, and if I did not provide it, I would not receive my federal tax refund.
They had a webpage set up for me to provide this information. I was to repeat the usual identifiers, and then submit to a face scan, which would be performed by my cellphone under their control. I’m not making this up.
Don’t want to provide a face scan? Fine, I could instead make an appointment at a federal tax service center, and appear at the appointed time and place, where representatives were, that’s right, standing by to serve me. I would be photographed, fingerprinted, and my documents checked.
And that’s how the US Treasury grabbed my face. My biometrics are now property of the US Treasury.
I did then receive my tax refund, but they still have my thousand dollars. They probably always will.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/24/2195236/-The-US-Treasury-wants-to-get-to-know-you
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
