March 20, 2024 – The IRS recently warned that financial scams are on the rise, especially during tax season. Reduce your risk of becoming a target by staying alert and knowing what to watch for.
Spotting the most common tax scams.
Scammers may contact you via phone, email, text or social media and then impersonate the IRS to make you think there’s a problem with your tax return. Common scam strategies include:
- Using false phone numbers or accounts to mimic a legitimate text or call from the IRS.
- Adopting fear tactics, such as suggesting your tax return has an error or that you owe a large sum of money or a penalty, as well as taking urgent action to address these types of issues.
- Instructing you to provide unusual payment methods (such as gift cards, money transfers or cryptocurrency) to pay your taxes.
- Asking you to share personal information to facilitate tax refunds.
Three tips to safeguard against tax scams:
- The IRS always initiates contact about any tax issues with a letter on official IRS letterhead. They will never contact you by phone, text, email or social media.
- Don’t give your personal information to anyone contacting you via phone calls, texts, email or social media.
- You can verify the legitimacy of any communication you receive using the published IRS phone number: 1-800-829-1040.
If you’re targeted by a scammer, ignore it instead of responding.
Visit the IRS for instructions on reporting tax scam attempts, and report fraud to the Federal Trade Commission or by calling 877-FTC-HELP.
