IRS: Beware tax season phishing/malware scams

March 30, 2016

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a consumer alert for email schemes after noting a 400 percent surge in phishing and malware incidents so far in the 2016 tax season. The emails or texts are designed to trick taxpayers into thinking they are official communications from the IRS or others in the tax industry, including tax software companies. It is critical to be wary of email from unknown sources. The most sophisticated security technology can be defeated if a user clicks the wrong link. Click here (guaranteed safe link!) to find out what to expect and how to deter phishing scams.

IRS Top Tax Season Scams

  • Pose as a trusted person or organization
  • Hack an email account and send mass emails under another person’s name
  • Pose as a bank, credit card issuer, tax software firm or government agency
  • Create websites that appear legitimate but contain phony log-in pages

IRS reported tax scams
Jan-Feb          Incidents
2016                 1,389
2015                    564