| IRS looking for taxpayers owed refund checks
The check was in the mail. Seriously. While it�s easy for many people to accuse the government of finding new ways to take people�s money, it�s not often that people will see the feds trying to give it back. Still, the Internal Revenue Service is looking for taxpayers who are due refund checks. The money was sent out, but some of the checks were determined to be undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service and sent back to the IRS. In North Carolina, there are 3,267 people due a total of $5.25 million in refunds. More than 50 people from Albertson to Winterville have checks waiting for them averaging $1,600. Some have more than one check waiting. Mark Hanson, an IRS spokesman representing the Carolinas, said the refund checks were determined to be undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service and returned to the IRS.
World finance leaders to discuss currency crisis
KLEINMOND, South Africa (AP): Finance leaders of the world's 20 major economies meet Saturday amid tensions over the slumping dollar and strong Asian currencies, especially China's tightly controlled yuan. Also on the agenda for finance ministers and Central Bank governors are the deadlocked Doha trade talks on free markets, with the United States widely blamed for the failure. On the table for the two-day meeting of the Group of 20 are reforms to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which developing nations consider too much under the thumb of the United States. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is at the talks along with the new directors of the IMF and World Bank. "We have a number of emerging market countries that contribute significantly to the global economy, yet their voices at these institutions are not reflected,'' said Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni of South Africa, the host nation. The meeting brings together top finance officials from the Group of Seven developed nations and emerging economies including Brazil, India, Argentina and China to discuss economic development and financial stability. The G-20 represents two thirds of the world's population, 90 percent of gross domestic product and 80 percent of world trade. On Saturday, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling called for global reforms to promote greater investment in oil production and refinement in order to increase supplies. He asked Saudi Arabia and others in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase supply and reassure markets.
Learn how you can protect yourself from identity theft
A first-ever review of Secret Service files has found that only half of the cases of identity theft involved technological devices, such as computers, scanners and digital cameras, and only 10 percent were done exclusively through the Internet. In a fifth of the other cases, thieves stole personal data the old-fashioned way. Low-tech tactics included rerouting mail by sending change of address requests to institutions handling credit card and bank accounts, swiping items right from residents' mailboxes, and "Dumpster diving" -- going through trash for information used to produce counterfeit documents and to open credit accounts. Researchers from Utica College's Center for Identity Management and Information Protection in New York analyzed 517 closed Secret Service cases of ID theft from 2000 to 2006.
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