How to avoid tax scams and scammers
Tax season means fraudsters are out in force, looking to take your money
As if tax time weren’t tough enough, scammers are doubling down efforts to steal more of your hard-earned money. According to the Internal Revenue Service, there’s a huge spike in online tax scams, and an aggressive phone scam is making rounds again, too.
Here are the top telltale signs to help you spot a scam:
THE SCAM: The “IRS” calls — and they will arrest
you. The first telltale sign of this scam is that it’s an out-of-theblue call from the “IRS,” threatening to arrest you. Scammers often use fear to intimidate you.
The way it works is like this: You get a phone message or call from someone “from the IRS,” or the “IRS legal department.” The person says that they’ve put a warrant out for your arrest, and if you don’t make a payment over the phone immediately you’ll be jailed. The scammer might even give a “badge number” and throw around terms like “outstanding liability” to suck you in.
THE FIX: Hang up. Whatever you do, don’t pay a cent! The IRS does not initiate contact over the phone, nor do they “hunt you down” and threaten to send police to your door. THE SCAM: The “IRS”
emails you. One of the biggest hot spots for fraudsters is your email in-box. You get an email saying your return is on hold or that you can expedite payment if you reply with some bank account information. These fake emails use IRS logos and false email addresses to make themselves look official or add “case numbers” to confuse you.
THE FIX: Report and delete. The IRS doesn’t send correspondence to taxpayers via email, and definitely never over Facebook. The IRS never asks for specific bank, debit or credit card information via email or through a link to an online form. Never click a link from one of these emails, or reply to the sender, because it might put you at risk for malware or computer viruses. THE SCAM: Fake mail from the “IRS.” The IRS sends a lot of letters, but so do scammers. One of most recent scams involves fake tax bills tied to the
Affordable Care Act. It’s supposed to be a CP-2000 notice from the IRS, which is a real notice some people might get indicating they owe money. THE FIX: Double check and
verify everything. As clever as the fake notice seems, it’s filled with red flags. The overall layout and logo are different and the fakes direct you to make out the check to “I.R.S.” rather than the U.S. Treasury. If you get anotice in the mail saying you owe money or even that you have a refund coming but need to give them your bank account or credit card information, don’t hand it over before confirming it’s actually from the government.
DO A LITTLE HOMEWORK
If something doesn’t look quite right, it never hurts to check it out. Here are some other resources for common scams:
Think you’ve spotted a tax prep fake? Check them out at the Better Business Bureau website.
For charities soliciting donations, CharityNavigator and GuideStar keep rankings and ratings of all legitimate charities. It’s as simple as typing in the name.