The Gold Key from Intuit

As a former Lacerte customer (I shifted to Drake as their pay per return model was better for me, I liked Lacerte interface better) they sent me a gold envelope.
In the letter was a gold key that is a USB device. I couldn't resist plugging this into my computer even though I had no intention of switching back unless they beat the price.
The key pretends to be a USB-HID (human interface device). Namely a keyboard and it types directly into the desktop to direct you to a website to sign in. This is pretty scary except I didn't expect Lacerte to do anything bad to me.
I used to work in computer security and it seems this is a known mechanism for compromising computers.
This seems like a risky move by them in the current climate with attacks on tax pros from the bad guys.

Thanks for the warning. I agree that this move is not very wise in the current climate. But as a former, long time Lacerte user, this is not the first time Lacerte has made a poor decision. Remember when we were all checking the box to make the DeMinimis election and it turned out that Lacerte never actually included those elections in the E filed returns? That was one of the last straws for me.

Neill, what exactly was the purpose of them sending you that?

IRC, that is the first I have heard about the DeMinimis election not being included with E filed returns. What year are you talking about?

I hate to say it guys but it is a big risk to plug in a unknown USB device to your main work computer.

I have an old beat around laptop for exactly this purpose. That laptop is NEVER connected to my network unless I do a fresh install of the OS (about twice or thrice a year). When i get anything that i am curious BUT suspicious that is my laptop to use. I still have Win 8.1 on it!

Disable the autorun feature so nothing on the flash drive executes when inserted. Then run a virus check on the drive.

Neill, what exactly was the purpose of them sending you that?

IRC, that is the first I have heard about the DeMinimis election not being included with E filed returns. What year are you talking about?

It's to get me to go to a website to get a special deal.

Disable the autorun feature so nothing on the flash drive executes when inserted. Then run a virus check on the drive.

You are missing the fact that this isn't a disk. It's a keyboard. Nothing is autorun. You can't stop this that way.

So this pseudo-keyboard opens your internet browser and types in an internet address, and there is no autorun.inf file on the flashdrive?

I wonder what my computer would do if I plugged in a second keyboard?

Neill, what exactly was the purpose of them sending you that?

IRC, that is the first I have heard about the DeMinimis election not being included with E filed returns. What year are you talking about?

2014 was the year.....here is a discussion of what happenned.

https://accountants-community.intuit.co ... -to-e-file

If you have a few minutes, you may want to ready through the whole exchange. It gets worse and worse. I believe, in the end, the IRS gave Lacerte s"special dispensation" on this. I seem to recall the issue came up because someone was audited and found out tht the election has not been filed.

So this pseudo-keyboard opens your internet browser and types in an internet address, and there is no autorun.inf file on the flashdrive?

I wonder what my computer would do if I plugged in a second keyboard?

Close. It's not a flashdrive. There are no files. It does windows+R to bring up the run dialog box. then it types this:

http://IntuitProConnect.com/Lacerte2018

That is a dangerous item if it can open the open the run dialog box and type a command and execute it! Can you imagine the endless possibilities that presents itself to a crook who wants to either take control or destroy your data. Those computer hijackers would have a field day with this device. Remember those days in the 90s we all got a AOL white floppy disk in the mail each week!