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Copied from IRS E-News: 1. New IRS Impersonation Email Scam The IRS and its Security Summit partners warned tax professionals this week about a new IRS impersonation scam campaign spreading nationally on email. The new email scam uses dozens of compromised websites and web addresses that pose as IRS.gov, making it a challenge to shut down. By infecting computers with malware, these imposters may gain control of an individual’s computer or secretly download software that tracks every keystroke, eventually giving them passwords to sensitive accounts, such as financial accounts. “The IRS does not send emails about your tax refund or sensitive financial information,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “This latest scheme is yet another reminder that tax scams are a year-round business for thieves. We urge you to be on-guard at all times.” The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial account.

I left BoA after the banks blew up the economy in 2008 (have you seen The Big Short?), and have been with a credit union ever since. Could not be happier with interest rates, customer service and their websites.

Often these phone encounters are followed by a message: "Please take a survey to tell us of your customer service experience today." Customers are often furious, but these corporate giants use these surveys to chew out the poor reps that were on the phone. These guys(girls) are usually not the problem, and spend their time having to defend idiotic policy decisions made by people far above their heads.

Blocked downloads are usually the fault of security software. Either pause or disable security to download. I recommend uninstalling McAfee. It and Norton are both notorious for causing problems and slow performance. I use Firefox primarily, Chrome for persnickety sites and IE for US government sites.