Beware of Tax Scams from ID Thieves

Now that the holidays are over and tax season is well under way. You should have received your W-2 or 1099s in the mail by the end of January and started collecting information to complete your tax return. This also brings out those who want to scam you to get your personal information disguised as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

You may receive emails, phone calls, letters or faxes claiming to be the Internal Revenue Service.  These scammers want your personal information such as Social Security number, bank account and or credit card numbers to commit identity theft and steal your money and or open accounts in your name.

New Scam

One new email scam, supposedly from the Internal Revenue Service, warns taxpayers that they did not submit an updated W-2 form. It includes a link to a phishing website that asks them to enter their W-2 information such as Social Security number, address and wages.

It is scary to receive something from the Internal Revenue Service, so some respond immediately to the request without thinking.  The Internal Revenue Service does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to ask for personal or financial information such as PIN numbers, passwords or secret access to credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

What do you do?

If you receive an email from the Internal Revenue Service do the following:

Don’t reply to the message.

Don’t open any attachments.  The attachments may contain a virus that could infect your computer.

Do not click on any links. The links could be to a “fake” Internal Revenue Service website to obtain personal information from you that can be used to steal your money.  If you click on the site, do not enter any information.  The site may look authentic but it is not. The website address for the Internal Revenue Service is www.irs.gov  not .com, .net or .org.

If you are contacted by the Internal Revenue Service by phone, fax or letter, but are not sure that this person is legitimate, contact the Internal Revenue Service. You can contact them at 800-829-1040 to verify that this person is an employee and has a real need to contact you. You can also forward any suspicious emails to phishing@irs.gov.

Since more people are using smartphones and identity thieves have been targeting them, these thieves may try to send texts from the Internal Revenue Service to cell phones. Don’t respond to these either.

Credit Damage Expert, John Ulzheimer, is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorised in: Civil Penalty, Financial, Government, Identity Theft, Internal Revenue Service, Money & Identity

This post was written by John Ulzheimer