The Internal Revenue Service warned that thieves are using a new “scam email” scheme this tax season to trick taxpayers into handing over their bank account numbers and Social Security numbers.
According to the IRS, the largest scam targeting approximately 162 million U.S. taxpayers “attempts to trick people into believing they owe a refund.”
Victims of the latest scheme were mailed cardboard envelopes, along with a letter “containing non-IRS contact information and phone numbers” that sported a seemingly legitimate IRS masthead. There is.
The IRS has traditionally told Americans that the federal agency does not initiate contact with taxpayers through email, text messages, or social media, and these types of communications from the so-called IRS are ignored as fraud. The website points out that it should be done.
The IRS is notorious for sending communications exclusively through the mail, but scammers have noticed this and are now also delivering bogus information requests to Americans’ mailboxes.
The IRS falsely claimed that the letters “related to unclaimed refunds” and tricked people into providing very personal information such as driver’s license photos, bank routing numbers, and Social Security numbers. They warned that they would be giving away details and that thieves could use them. “To steal personal information and money, including tax refunds,” IRS Commissioner Danny Wuerffel said. news on the agency’s website.
The IRS said red flags to look out for include strange punctuation, mixed fonts, and inaccurate tax deadlines, for example.
For reference, the majority of Americans must file their tax returns for fiscal year 2023 between January 29th and April 15th. However, taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts have until April 17 to file because each state recognizes Patriot Day and Emancipation Day holidays.
Lisa Greene-Lewis, a certified public accountant and tax expert at TurboTax, also told the Post that when filing tax returns online, filers should make sure that the website begins with “https” instead of “http.” He said he needed to confirm. The former is to ensure that the website is encrypted. .
Encryption protects information by encoding it in a specific way that prevents it from being hacked, but it also creates an obstacle for hackers.
“Another safety measure is to use secure passwords when logging in and setting up multi-factor authentication,” says Greene Lewis.
The X-Account Global News report provides an example of a fraudulent email from the IRS in which a taxpayer receives a $650 refund from the Revenue Service along with a link to fill out a document containing supposedly sensitive personal information. It indicated that he was obligated to receive a refund. funds.
“Tax season is not even a third of the way through, but IRS impersonation has already begun,” the Global News report said. ×post last week.
In addition to this new “scam email” scheme, the IRS has an annual Dirty Dozen list of major scams and schemes “intended to alert taxpayers and the tax professional community,” according to the IRS. .
topping 2023 Dirty Dozen List Although it is fraudulent, it is an “aggressive sales pitch by scammers promoting large refunds related to Employee Retention Credits (ERCs).”
Proponents are hoping that Americans will receive ERC refunds that were available to certain employers primarily as an incentive for employers to keep employees on payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also known that he ran advertisements on the radio and on the Internet promoting the possibility of being arrested.
Other Dirty Dozen scams include phishing and smishing. These are fake communications from a thief posing as his IRS to request a US person’s personal information, ultimately leading to identity theft.
Federal agents at the IRS reportedly opened 1,409 tax crime investigations in the 12 months ending in September 2023, uncovering $5.5 billion in tax evasion during the period.
Frenchman Ayodele Arasokun, 46, was sentenced to 34 years in federal prison in September for orchestrating more than 1,700 false tax returns and orchestrating a scheme to obtain a staggering $9.1 million in refunds from the IRS. It was reported that he had been sentenced. press release It was shared by then-West Virginia Attorney General’s Office.
The notice states that a total of $2.2 million in fraudulent tax refunds were actually paid to Arasokun by the IRS at the time of his arrest.
