Be cautious of tax scams
Financial scams are often on the rise during tax season. Reduce your risk of becoming a target by staying alert and knowing what to watch for.
Common Tax Scams
Scammers may contact you via phone, email, text, or social media and then impersonate the to make you think there鈥檚 a problem with your tax return. Common scam strategies include:聽
- Using false phone numbers or accounts to mimic a legitimate text or call from the IRS. This is called .
- 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.
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鈥檛 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.
Remember, real government or immigration officials will never call you to ask for personal information; they will never threaten