pieces is being retired. the choice of which is up to you. you can go on facebook and vote for the token they want to save. as far as getting rid of, which token for me the thimble. ashley, the iron. ashley: get rid of that. lori: you can vote on what the new piece should be. diamond ring. vote for that. guitar, toy robot, cats or helicopter. the winning token will debut later this year. what a clever idea to refresh the game. ashley: time for the top three things to watch tomorrow. number three, speeches from federal reserve members continue. charles plosser will present his economic outlook in a speech in new jersey at 9:30 a.m. eastern tomorrow. lori: good times. number two, november u.s. international trade. the trade gap expected to drop slightly to 41.3 billion to 42.2 billion in october. a narrowing trade gap. october saw a big jump in the deficit due to higher oil imports and weakness in japan and europe. ashley: number one thing to watch tomorrow will be wells

fargo earnings ahead of the bell. expecting the company to post earnings of 88 cents. revenue of 21.3 billion. keep an eye out for that. melissa: you're up to date. that does it for must. "money" with melissa is up next. melissa: i'm melissa francis. here is what is "money" tonight. jack lew gets the nod for new treasury secretary. senator jeff sessions is outraged and vowing to block lew's senate confirmation. he will join us to explain why. why this flu epidemic is making our economy sick. experts say we're looking at a possible $10 billion hit on the economy from the flu. that is what we need. details are coming up. how much is an oscar really worth to a movie? the 2013 academy award nominees are out. studios dropped 10 of millions of dollars on their oscar campaigns. a top industry expert is here to crunch the numbers. even when they say it's not, it is always about money.

melissa: we start today with another school shooting. it happened at taft union high school in california. one student was shot. the sheriff says they have one suspect in custody. makes the meetings on gun control today, on capitol hill even more urgent. the fact that vice president joe biden met with the nra and other gun rights activists on possible new federal regulation. at the same time attorney general eric holder was talking to retailers about solutions to gun violence. all of it could end up having a deep impact on the sales of guns in this country, which in turn would hit our already struggling economy. fox business's rich edson is in washington with the latest. rich, what do we expect to come out of all this effort? >> a report to be delivered tuesday to the president. that is what vice president joe biden said in a meeting today. whether it is a mix of federal regulations that the

administration can do without the consent of congress or thinks it can do without the consent of congress, or whether this is legislative idea that is unclear but vice president joe biden did say there was a consensus developing. >> there is a surprising, so far, a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks. not just closed to gun show loophole but, total universal background checks, including private sales. >> the national rifle association, in a statement about this meeting said it was disappointed how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with cushing the second amendment. melissa? melissa: well, who has been meet at the white house on this? >> there are a number of different groups here. first off on the businesses, these are the retailers that met with attorney general eric hold academy sports,

bass pro shops, cabela's, number of big name folks. wal-mart wasn't originally going to show but said yesterday it was reversing its initial statement and would come up. there were a number of other meetings with the vice president. sportsmen groups, womens groups, gun owner groups. entertainment industry. that is portion. how much violence television and videogames has to deal with this. tomorrow the videogame folks will meet here with the vice president. melissa? melissa: rich, it feels a lot like when they bring everyone in from washington, you know, to, i'm sorry, everyone in from wall street to come and meet and talk about things then you don't know what really will come out of it. this is a parade of people coming through. do you think that something is really going to come out of it? >> we'll definitely get a report. how much the administration will push this, remember the administration didn't have all that much to say on gun control until these recent events developed. they always had positions on it but didn't go out of their way to discuss it. they're going for the

optics. having meetings with different stakeholders. whether this translates into actual policy we'll see. that report comes out tuesday. waiting to see what is in it. melissa: definitely. rich edson, thanks so much. in light of everything that has happened some lawmakers are wondering should anyone have access to semiautomatic assault rifles and high-capacity magazines? according to the second amendment every american has the right to bear arms but alderman joe marino says not everyone should have access to the weapons. he hasn't heard an argument to believe otherwise. why do you think banning these particular weapons would solve the problem. >> i don't think it is a panacea, melissa, and that it will solve everything. let's be fair and very honest and perhaps unemotional about the argument which is very emotional argument. you have no solid reason that semiautomatic and high magazine capacity bullets are needed in our society. and if we take a look at

what, the tragedy that happened in connecticut, the accessibility that that gentleman had, couldn't even call him a gentleman, that criminal had, to these kinds of weapons is why we had such a tragedy out there. and i just don't have, i have not heard one solitary, solid, reasonable, argument that i may disagree with, but not even a reasonable argument why we should continue to manufacture and sell these types of weapons. melissa: you make an argument that a lot of people make, having assault rifles out there or having magazines with so many bullets in them increases the body count, when something like this happens, but if you look at the total number of gun homicides per year, we went back and we looked at time during the assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004. there were 9983 gun homicides per year on average. since the time the ban was lifted 2005 to 2007 ven the number of gun homicides per year has actually gone down, 9528 as the average.

so which --. >> looked at 10-year period as compared to a six-year period, am i correct. melissa: no it was average over that period of time. they have gone down. >> let's wait another four years to see if the average is still there. regardless of the other societal problems we have, which our mental health facilities. melissa: right. >> are desperately need to be increased and that, we're talking about violence in videogames and violence in movies and et cetera, that can't replace the discussion about what is fair and reasonable gun control in our country. i would even say, whereas these travesties continue to happen, we might not even be talking about gun control. we're talking about, trying to, a massacre, protection quite frankly and i will go head-to-head with anyone that gives me a solid argument on why we need to keep these guns an magazines. i haven't heard that from you today. melissa: hang on. this isn't normal disagree with me generally we do. normally we have fun and this is very serious topic

we're talking. another shooting happened today. >> right. melissa: we both would like to see the things not happen, a question, does it become a slippery slope when you start infringing on the second amendment? for example the shooting that happened a few hours ago in california, so far the reports show it was someone with a shotgun. not even a gun we're talking about. wouldn't have impacted that at all. >> sure. melissa: i don't know if we're attacking the right problem? seems like it is really about mental health. maybe it is about school safety. guns don't kill people. people kill people. >> so get tired, i get so tired of that trite saying though. and that is the problem. i will put it this way. you say why are we going to infringe on the second amendment. well, we already do. you can no-go it and get, second amendment talks about right to bear arms. melissa: it is not helping. if we already done it is not working. >> we don't have people shooting rocket launchers at school. we don't have people throwing grenades into big office buildings. we don't have people rolling

up on, in tanks. those things are not accessible, all right? we've decided as a society that they should not be accessible even though they're arms and what i'm arguing -- wait, wait. we each get a turn. it is my show. when you look at people who have been bent on killing in these situations i feel like if they didn't have rifles they would have made a homemade bomb. these are people mentally unstable who are bent on causing death and destruction. they would find a way to do it no matter what weapon there was. go ahead. let you have the last word. >> i don't disagree with that point but i agree what do they have accessible to them? terrible shooting in connecticut, if he had a slingshot we would be talking about a couple broken windows and bump on head. if he had a rocket launcher maybe we would be talking about a school was shot with that. my point is, we already restrict arms. and i think what we need to have serious debate and we're 57% of the americans agree with me, melissa, in a recent "cbs poll", these type of weapons need not be

part of our sew sky -- society. melissa: thanks for coming on, joe. real serious topic and we appreciate your thoughts on it. >> thank you, melissa. melissa: time for today's fuel gauge. saudi arabia cut oil output to 9 million barrels a day because of slow demand around the world. it is the country's biggest production cut in nearly three years but china's thirst for crude is not slowing down. oil imports rose 8% in december, versus the same time in 2011. export growth in china quadrupled compared to november, indicating a strong pickup of economic activity there. both stories fueled the oil trade, closing at a high of 93.82 a barrel. moving onto the other really big story of the day. president obama's new pick for treasury secretary and that is of course jack lew. if confirmed. lew could take over just as the administration is up to its neck in battles over several fiscal deadlines, including whether or not to raise the debt ceiling.

but lew's critics are howling. joining me on the phone is alabama senator jeff sessions. a top republican on the senate budget committee and says that lew must never be confirmed. thanks for speaking with us today, senator. let's get right to it. what is your main objection here? >> look, mr. lew has been the point man for the president in misrepresenting the fundamentals of our debt situation. for example, in early 2011, when he was budget director, he came before our committee, went on television, and stated that our budget will get us over the next several years, to the point where we can look the american people in the eye, and say we're not adding to the debt anymore. we're spending money we have, only money we have each year. we can work on bringing down our national debt. he said his budget would do that, when in actuality, added $13 trillion to the debt over 10 years. and the lowest single deficit in one year during

that period was $600 billion. looks like that number was lower than the truth is going to be. melissa: yes. >> i guess what i would say to you, i examined him at length and aggressively at the budget committee. he continued to insist on that utterly false position. i don't feel like we shuttle straight somebody --. melissa: senator, we can put the quote up on the screen as well. he said our budget will get us over the next several years to the point we're not adding to the debt anymore. we're spending money that we have each year. and when he was grilled at length after that he came back and tried to justify it in a couple different ways saying that they were, you know, not counting the interest that you to pay on the debt. they came back with a couple different ideas but it was hard to come up with a mathematical answer that supported that statement being true. why does it bother you so much that he would come out and say something like this. >> look, this was a statement that if the

american people can only interpret one way, that the president's budget led us to a balanced budget and would pay down the debt. that is exactly what they want the the american people to hear and when i asked him about it at committee he had no answer really of any value to that. when i asked secretary geithner, then the secretary of treasury, about it, he acknowledged the president's budget still left us on an unsustainable debt path. but lew, he was spinning without ceasing to try to make this budget sound good politically. and we need somebody as secretary of treasury, the highest economic official in america, and the president doesn't understand economics. he has never been involved in business and finance, we need somebody of real strength in that position who is not a political crony out of the white house. that is all we've gotten from mr. lew. melissa: do you think you have the support, how hard will you fight? >> i'm going to do everything i can to raise this question that of

whether or not in lieu we will have somebody who is willing to deal seriously with the great crisis of our time, which is our debt? all other issues this country faces are dwarfed by the threat of what, a debt crisis can do to america. melissa: yeah. >> and we really need a serious work toward that. they made a political decision in 2011, to, not confront the issue. to not deal with entitlements. to run and pretend there is no danger out there. and, he, even more so than geithner was the point person. melissa: hate to interrupt you. we have to run. i think we're having a little problem with your audio. thanks so much for coming on. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. melissa: next on "money" is jack lew extreme enough as senator sessions says to

warrant republicans blocking his nomination in the senate? our all-star power panel is here to respond. more "money" coming up. ♪ ♪

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melissa: as we know, big news today, president obama nominated his chief of staff, jack lew as treasury secretary. moments ago you heard senator jeff sessions say jack lew should never, never be treasury secretary. is that too harsh? let's go to our "money" power panel. kimberly fox, james freeman, assistant editor after the "wall street journal" and jonathan hoenig is a portfolio manager manager at capitalist pig.com and fox news contributor. welcome to the show. welcome to all of you. jonathan, i want to start with you. did you hear senator sessions go by and what did you think of all that? >> well, i actually think lew is perfect for obama. i mean lew's signature, melissa is as unintelligible as the president's economic policies. so he fits right in. actually i share senator sessions's concerns. jack lew has been in washington since he was 18 years old. he is devout liberal and he seeks to maintain and in

fact expand the failed entitlement programs that we're dealing with right now. i mean what i think treasury needs, keep in mind, this is the individual who signs the currency, we need a cutter, someone able to make those big difficult decisions and preserve currency. i don't think jack lew is that guy. melissa: even more than that james. we need someone to do math. really bugs me that he said we're not adding to the debt anymore. we're spending money that we have each year. if the cfo that is really a budget guy or treasury guy, went out, cfo of a company went out and said this is what we're doing. only spending what is coming in and that much of a misrepresentation, we would be in huge trouble. >> sure. washington accounting a lot of politicians go to jail if you apply to them the rules you apply to the business world and this is an issue as you said, the treshry secretary has to have credibility in world markets. the fact he does not have credibility when he talks about the debt, the fact he essentially has no business experience except for

cashing in his political connections at citi, the pretty typical, too big to fail phony capitalist bank, i think there are a lot of reasons, people look at this nomination and they're profoundly disappointed if you were hoping for anymore growth economics, in the second term, hoping for maybe, a little less anti-business attitude you're not seeing it here. melissa: kimberly, what do you think about this? does it bug you as much as it bugs me that was mathematically inaccurate? >> yeah. considering, melissa, he is supposed to be a budget guru, correct, it doesn't add up. on top of that he is kind of a washington insider. so he really doesn't have the credibility on wall street that maybe even geithner and hank paulson had. they had connections on wall street. they had insight there he really doesn't have it. that will be a big hurdle for him to have synergy with wall street and get corporations on his side. it does concern me. i share the concerns of jonathan and james and the

senator. melissa: she makes a great point. what is the downside of that. people listening say, wow, he doesn't have wall street connections. maybe he is not insider. maybe we will not baby wall street the way geithner did. maybe it is a plus he doesn't have wall street connections? >> i prefer him to be wall street insider instead after washington insider exactly what he has been. he is essentially a career bureaucrat. he has been there for decades and decades the big claim to fame, one written about he was part of that 198 deal to supposedly save social security. you know social security has a $20 trillion unfunded deficit. it has huge multitrillion dollar deficit. it is not exactly a claim to fame. what i fear moving forward he will basically want to extend more entitlement spending. that is exactly very fiscal problem this country is facing now. melissa: james, i understand why it is bad to be a washington insider. we're beating that to death. why is it good to be connected to wall street? why is that beneficial to the economy and more than

beneficial to wall street? >> he is connected to wall street. did his time at citi. collect ad big check. he was there when bob rubin was there like timothy geithner, very much in the mode of washington and wall street working together and not necessarily for the benefit of the american people. i think the concern is, that knows little about business or finance. outside of the political --. melissa: what is your evidence of that? just he hasn't worked anywhere? >> look at the resume'. melissa: yeah. >> ask a question, these jobs that these guys get when they leave washington to work for a too big to fail bank, by the way there will be more spotlight on that. this is a disaster. this is essentially the only business line on his resume'. melissa: that's a great point, kimberly. you build on that he worked at citigroup. he was the cheap operating officer in part for the alternative investments unit. was also global wealth management. alternative investments? those were the ones that were doing riskiest things

when he was there, when he was questioned about that, i was just the operations guy, i was not looking at day-to-day book. that is never the good answer when you're the boss. i didn't know what my folks were doing. >> he was operations manager. that is what he was supposed to be doing. that was his job. those were the wrapping of alternative investments and wrapping up, making pretty in neat boxes and sell them as something else. so he is as guilty as the rest of them. but reality is here i think entitlement issues and someone has to be the take the lead and cut those entitlements. if not, if we're looking at a debt ceiling rising and that is a difficult situation. melissa: jonathan, real quick, last word. we're out of time. go ahead. >> this is the individual who signs the currency. he needs to be the fiscal voice of reason in the white house. jack lew is on record saying he doesn't believe big cuts are needed, big changes are needed. he is more of a surgical, small cut type of guy. this is exactly the wrong

approach given our fiscal issues. melissa: we'll end on that. fantastic power panel. come back soon. thank you very much. nothing says can thing like scoring an oscar. the academy awards nominees are out. how much does it pay if you win? we'll crunch the numbers next. plus the worst flu season in a decade is sweeping the country but the outbreak could make the economy fall ill. we'll explain coming up. do you ever have too much money? definitely don't have many oscars, that's for sure. ♪ . look, if you have copd like me,

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♪ . melissa: it is oscar time. the nominations for the 85th annual academy awards are out and "lincoln" leads the pack with 12 nominations including best picture but do oscars mean box-office gold?

according to a study the best picture oscar winners of the last 20 years got a domestic box-office boost of $13 million on average. here to crunch the numbers on the value of a oscar, tom o'neil, he had door of goldderby.com. you brought a special friend. it is so heavy. it is a real oscar. i can barely lift it and i have freakish upper body strength. how much does it weigh? >> oscars today weigh six pounds. this is not real gold. hollywood will spend $100 million to win a fake gold statuette that costs $400 to manufacture. shows how crazy the town is. melissa: when you win how much is the possible take? >> i disagree. i think it is much higher. i asked harvey weinstein how much did you make. melissa: my book publisher. let's give him a shoutout. we love harvey. >> chicago back 10 years ago

this year, made $100 million extra for winning best picture. probably would have made $200 million worldwide. it went to three. i think the best example of what it can do two years ago with "the king's speech". that movie, how much would that have made, two cents without the oscars? ended up with 400 million worldwide. melissa: it had, a you know, all-star cast. it was a great movie. you don't think, i wonder how much, does it get because it won an owes car and how much did it get an oscar because it is good and that is why it is making money? >> that is it hard to define. once you're in the oscar winner you have to be seen as a film. we all treat it like the other super bowl, the one for hollywood, our iconic cultural gods. we have to see the movies and that means ticket sales. melissa: are you sure that is true? we went on twitter and facebook, we asked our fans and are you likely to go see a movie? they got hysterical. people said, no, i will not let hollywood decide for me what i'm going to see.

he see what i want to see. but no, all of our smart -- >> twitter twit. >> don't you call my viewers twitter twits. i will throw you right off my set. >> those people are. we see the data. the artist last year, made well over $100 million. just in the u.s. come on. how much money would that have made? a black and white silent film without the oscars? melissa: talk about this year's picks. what did you like? >> my personnal two favorite movies are the beeses of the southern wild and "the life of pi". melissa: you think it walks away best picture. >> no "lincoln". it had most nominations 75% of the time that wins best picture. melissa: ben affleck didn't get director nod? what is the deal? he made a big early with "goodwill hunting" and won't let him back in. >> looking at that category they decided to go artistic. they let in the european director around went with the bees of the southern wild newbie. there was no room for him.

melissa: was that a surprise, the beast of the southern wild? did you know about that or had a lot of buzz? >> we knew it was major contender. it did much better than most people thought. melissa: were there any surprises for you in there. >> the 9-year-old from beast got nominated. melissa: you did that well. i had no idea. came up on the screen. forget it. >> she could win. melissa: that would be incredible. what do you think, what was the biggest, so you think that was the biggest surprise out there? >> the other big surprise of course was in the director race with kathryn bigelow not getting nominated. >> why did that happen? >> personally i think it was because they had felt been there, done that with the movie. a lot of people think the politics here play a role. the picture of terrorism, the torture against suspected terrorists, the backlash. melissa: yeah. i don't know we've been having that political debate a lot. let me ask you about oscar because i know we're out of time this guy. it is illegal to sell them after 1950, right?

>> i bought this one for $25,000. it is 1946. rare they come on the market before then. now they sell, i was offered 200,000 for this. melissa: would you tell us you paid for it. >> 25,000 i think. melissa: wow, that was good investment for you and it is real. >> it is real. melissa: would you tell me what you think will win best picture. >> i think it will be "lincoln". watch out for "silver linings playbook". it could be the movie with heart that takes down goliath. melissa: we appreciate your time. here is our money question of the day. i said what it was. are you more likely to see a movie if it wins or is nominated for an oscar. overwhelming majority of you said forget it no! the nomination would have no impact. owe disagrees with me and you. we want to hear from more of you. facebook.com/melissafrancisfox or follow me on twitter @melissaafrancis. that was fun. next on "money", you may be worried about get sick from

the flu but experts say it could sicken our whole economy. "piles of money" and no more oscars for me coming up. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused.

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hands because if you haven't it could cost you more than you think. we're on track for one of the worst flu seasons in a decade and the center for disease control estimates, estimates are unusually high outbreak will cost employers as much as $10.4 billion this season of the not good for our already weak economy. joining me is economist peter morici, and dr. marc siegel of the fox news medical a-team. thanks to both of you for joining us. mark, i have to ask you is really as bad as everyone is saying? oh, it is so terrible, worst of the decade. maybe we had a light one for two years. maybe it is bad in comparison to that? >> it is bad as people are saying and bad as 2003 which was the worst flu season prior to this, but our perception makes it a lot worse. we personalize the risk. we think we'll die immediately. everybody gets hyped. >> we're a bunch of babies is what you're saying? >> the fear is not helping anybody. there is financial implications there. we heard from roach they're running short on tamiflu

which is anti-viral drug i need. sanofi-aventis said they're running out of flu shots. pharmacists and physicians have flu shots. this is big business. flu shots are big business this year. so is tamiflu which is a great anti-viral. melissa: do they charge more for those things? >> they don't do that but they try to make them in a hurry. you can't make flu shots with the technology from the 1950s takes nine months to make flu shots. melissa: wow! peter what about the estimate from challenger, gray & christmas they think on average it will cost $10.4 billion for employers? this is direct costs outpatient visits. doesn't even take into the account the lost productive because people are at home sick as opposed to work. do you believe that? >> yeah, i believe the $10.5 billion. there is tendency to run those numbers up a bit but the more significant thing is the kind of panic this causes on people's part. and also the absences that we frequently have from work, you know if critical personnel are missing in

large numbers, organizations slow down. if you're an architectural firm and working on a project that gets put out in time that is lost money. those are really big issues. it is different than a hurricane of the because after a few months everybody is back on the job or whatever the flu season is, and you know, the city is still there we don't have to rebuild the place. melissa: peter, why does panic cost money? why does overreaction? are you talking about a run on flu shots and that sort of thing? that is good. that is more business. everybody goes to the doctor. incur fees. you buy cold medicine. that is expensive. you're spending money but doing it in a different way. >> you're spending money unproductively. you're spending money on things you don't need that could be used in better ways. society is never well-served misallocating resources by irrational behavior. there is the issue that people start to become too cautious and too worried and worry affects people's productivity as the doctor will tell you and it slows people down. >> to speak to your point,

peter, i think a lot of people staying home from work don't necessarily have the flu. they think every sniffle is the flu. >> that's right. >> they think every cough is the flu. >> exactly. >> people are panicking and staying out of work. >> especially my students around midterms. melissa: exactly. we're a bunch babies and we feel sick we should go to work, is that your medical advice. >> no. if you feel sick go to the doctor. let the doctor tell you if they think you have the flu. don't even want to for a moment want to downplay the serious this. the flue is enabler and can get from other diseases like pneumonia and bronchitis. flu is not to be taken likely but you shouldn't jump to think every sniffle is the flu. melissa: at the same time we're overreacting. peter, sounds like the media's fault. always the damn media's fault. we're hyping up this thing the flue, is bigger than ever are we doing disservice to the economy? is this segment a disservice to the economy. >> no it is not. dismal scientists scientists

running around and terrible things will happen and multiplier effects will happen. all the evils came out of pandora's box. they came up when they opened adam smith. >> good time to look at some of these stocks. full disclosure, i don't own roach. i don't own any of these stocks. >> too late. melissa: thanks, guys. you were terrific. >> priced in. melissa: coming up on money, you might not think you have to worry about someone stealing your identity but tax related identity theft is skyrocketing up 650% in the past four years. we have the frightening details coming up. we'll scare you some more. at the end of the day it is all about money. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you trade?

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melissa: here's some scary news just in time for tax season. a new report found cases of identity related theft jumped 650% from 2008 to 2012. isn't that stagger? what is the irs doing to prevent thieves from ripping you off? how can you be sure you don't become a victim? we have colonel cedric layton, former member of the joint chiefs of staff and a cybersecurity expert.

why do you think we've seen such a dramatic rise? >> melissa, we've seen a rise because it is easy for identity thieves, hackers to get into the irs systems and the tax preparation systems. what that means for all of us we have to pay close attention to our tax preparers since 90% use software to prepare taxes or go to h&r block or similar companies to do that. those are kind of things we have to watch out for. we have to watch out for it when the tax form gets to the irs itself. there is a possibility of data theft within the irs system as well. melissa: what do you mean watch out for it? because i feel fairly, once the irs has it, what can you possibly do to protect yourself? they are the ones that have got it? >> that is part of the problem, what you can do is always watch your bank accounts to make sure nobody is doing those kinds of things. here is the key point, when you have identity theft happening to you in the tax season the best thing you can do is actually file early, as early as you possibly can because what

identity thieves try to do, they try to file as early as possible, so that when you finally file your taxes, all of sudden, let's say you're due a refund, all of sudden what happens the irs informs you because can't get refund because somebody already collected and filed a tax return in your name. that is how a lot of people file out about this. melissa: is that the most common scam? somebody files in a return on your behalf? how do they know what deductions you're going to take or know all your information. >> they don't need to know all your information and don't need to know all of your deductions. they can create a totally false persona simply based on your social security number. they can do that with dead people. living people are the ones that bear most consequences in these cases unless the dead person decide within the last year. it becomes a matter for heys it handle. this is a very tough situation -- heirs. you have to do your best to file early and work closely with the irs once something

like that happens. melissa: i was kidding about the deductions but they would need to have more than just your social security number. don't they have to match up to how much income you actually had? what kind of documents? how would they have done this? >> not necessarily. what they can do is take a job for example, in your name and get paid, or even as a dummy job and they can get paid for that. so they could have even more money that comes in or less money as the case may be. it is usually, you know, a case of whatever the identity thief wants to do. so what they end up doing, they end up falsifying the account in essence. they may also open up bank accounts in your name. and then they will come up with all kinds of difficult things and, you know, say the least it gets very confusing for the irs to deal with it. they do have several ways of deal with it. they have a fraud unit they have established about four years ago. the problem is they still have, to have people go among at least 21 different entities before they can get a resolution to their

identity problems, should they have something like that. melissa: that sounds crazy. are you safe err if you file online or by mail? which is better in terms of protecting yourself from identity theft? >> they're both very risky unfortunately. for example, if you live in a rural or suburban area have the standard mailboxes that aren't secured it is very easy for thieves to get into the mailboxes and look at what you have got there. if they see something going to and or from the irs they can take it and they can do some damage to it. that is where the mail part. if you file electronically using e-file system it generally is fairly secure but, there are several points within the process that are vulnerable to interception and if the encryption is not strong, they can go in and get after data, particularly looking for a particular individual. melissa: scary. thanks for coming on. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. my pleasure, melissa, thank you. melissa: look closely. does one of these strapping

men appear more trustworthy than the others? look closely. a new study says one eye color makes the guy seem particularly dependable. is it brown, blue, or green? we're going to bring you, bring the details in focus. that is coming up next. you can never have too much money, right, guys? snow. ♪ [ woman ] if you have the audacity to believe your financial advisor should focus on your long-term goals, not their short-term agenda. [ male announcer ] join the nearly 7 million investors who think like you do. face time and think time make a difference. at edward jones, it's how we make sense of investing. you know how painful heartburn can be. for fast, long lasting relief, use doctor recommended gaviscon®.

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relieving the pain quickly. hey, yo, check out this chef, right? right? that's so gay. that's really gay. dude, look at those pants. please don't say that. what? don't say that something is gay when you mean that something is dumb or stupid. it's insulting. it's like if i thought this pepper shaker was stupid, and i said, "man, this pepper shaker is so 16-year-old boy with a cheesy mustache." just saying.

♪ melissa: wow. rockingham. all right. time for a little fun with "spare change." today liz macdonald. thank you for coming on. all right. as we told you, new research shows man with one particular eye color appear to be more trustworthy than others. for all of your brown-eyed man, your the lucky ones. those chocolate-colored eyes appear to be more dependable, more dependable. >> i want to see. >> and i'm a lawyer. melissa: i am really blue. the brown contacts. tricky. >> brunei's. come on. there are beautiful. we are trustworthy? i don't know. >> a very trustworthy breed. based on a steady. >> so what.

they did not explain why. why. melissa: may be man with light blue or green eyes are spoiled more by women. i don't know. >> a guy named stevie blue eyes. no one calls them marty brown eyes. you don't get contacts to get brown eyes. melissa: i know you have blue eyes and are wearing contacts so more people trust you. all right. next story, have you heard who they are for this year's baseball hall of fame. no one. this is the first time since 1996 that no player has received the honor. look at what the new york times, the sports writers make the right decision? >> well, a huge statement about steroid use.

the second time since 1965 that this has happened, no inductees. melissa: depressing. >> yes, it is. >> use names, huge, huge, huge names. roger clemens, barry bonds to mike piazza, the highest batting average of any who ever played the sport. and not rampant accusations, but anyone from this era, and not getting in, at least on the first coke. melissa: the first ballot, or is it never getting in? >> next year, we will be on the show. >> cooperstown, only three guys who died more than 70 years ago will be indicted, that said. melissa: it sends a message to the endives. you want to make a lot of money. but that is your legacy. they're wiping out and commit your reputation. makes the point. next up, if you are a tabloid junkie, you will love this.

set to be released soon. four people can use it together and response to touch at the same time. i don't know why you're laughing. a joystick for games and plastic strikers for a rocky. the no vote hopes the tabloid will bring families back together. >> i know payless is tablets to mendicancy him with his wife in bed. it will create a lot of divorces. this is a recipe for the voice. he connected away from them. a lot of divorces. melissa: where she was going with that. >> bring us together. all right. melissa: as giant tombstone. sorry. it looks like it will need a lot of when next plane. >> the monopoly board. at