For the past several tax seasons, cyber criminals have used sophisticated social engineering tactics to dupe consumers into giving out their personal information.
Common email scams to be aware of this tax season:
- Email Says you are Owed a Refund – The requests are typically for you to send your bank account number to where the refund may be deposited.
- Email Contains Exciting Offers – Refunds or specials are offered for participating in an “IRS Survey.” This is a fake survey used to acquire the consumer’s personal information.
- Email Threatens the User – Fines or jail time are threatened if immediate payment isn’t made.
- Email Includes a “Helpful” Downloadable Document – New changes in the tax law or tax calculators try to entice users to download a potentially malicious file.
Avoid being a Tax-Scam Victim:
- Do not respond to emails appearing to be from the IRS – The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through email or social media to request personal information.
- Do not respond to unsolicited emails and do not provide sensitive information via email.
- Carefully select the tax sites you visit.
- Secure your computer.
