Are you a victim of identity theft?

If you’ve experienced identity theft, you know the frustration well.

In an effort to make recovering from it a little easier, the Federal Trade Commission and Internal Revenue Service announced, in early April, a new project that allows people to report tax-related identity theft to the IRS using the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov website.

It’s one more resource Dupaco members can add to their fraud-fighting toolkit. The credit union’s Family ID Restoration fraud-recovery coverage provides resources to help victims respond to identity theft and fraud.

IdentityTheft.gov is the only place you can submit IRS Form 14039 electronically, according to the FTC. In the past, consumers had to mail this form. You’ll also get help making an identity theft recovery plan.

“This website will be a timesaver. It will be a lot more efficient and a lot more secure,” says Kelly Liddle, fraud specialist at Dupaco.

Just this week, Liddle helped a member whose Social Security Number had been used by a fraudster to file a tax return. The member spent the better part of a day trying to connect with the IRS on the phone.

“Hopefully, we don’t have that many members who need to use this website. But if they do need to, this will certainly be far less frustrating than calling I hope,” Liddle says. “It’s not going to be something that everyone is going to need. It won’t protect you from tax identity theft, but it will help you react to it.”

Want to learn more? Find out how you can reduce your risk of tax-related identity theft.