Published on August 24th, 2022

If you can recognize common scams, it would ultimately help you avoid falling for one. But scammers often make an offer that is hard to ignore.

If we talk about the taxation field, it’s not free of scams. So, if you file taxes, you must be aware of the preventive measures. But if you want to ignore all these, we first start with the basic understanding of facts.

What Are Scams In The IRS? An Informative Piece:

At first, you need to understand that the IRS doesn’t contact taxpayers with emails, text messages, or social media. Besides, scammers use many other ways to steal your financial information and sensitive data. Generally:

“Phishing is an attack that originates from unwanted emails or phone calls. Furthermore, the scammers use a website and pose to be an original one.”

However, all these emails claim to be from IRS and ask for personal data. If you share this data, then later, it could result in financial loss. In this writing, we will talk about top IRS scams that can happen, and you should stay vigilant to avoid these.

How Does The IRS Initiate Contact?

To avoid fraud, the first step is understanding the IRS mechanism. Every year, thousands of people lose millions of dollars due to fraud.

So, you should know that the IRS doesn’t initiate contact with the taxpayers using emails, phone calls, or postal service.

Thus, if anything like this happens, then it’s a clear indication of a scam alert. There are the following exceptional cases when IRS initiates the contact:

But in the above cases, generally, the taxpayer will receive a letter or notice from IRS in the mailbox. Still, you should cross-check whether the letter is original.

What Are Top Fraud Schemes? IRS Scam Alert:

Companies go through many stages, from planning to marketing and brand development. Apart from this, learning about tax-related matters and fraud schemes is vital, especially if you are a beginner.

The IRS and other security agencies are working together to ensure the safety of taxpayers.

For instance, these institutes have taken many steps since 2015 to protect people and the tax system from thieves. Here are typical fraud schemes that people use for this purpose:

Text Messages Fraud Schemes:

Most of the time, scammers use text messages and pretend to be an official from the IRS. It is a common practice; these texts contain a bogus link and claim it to be an IRS website. But you should know that the IRS doesn’t discuss personal tax-related issues on text messages.

Apart from this, the tax regulatory authority doesn’t use social media platforms to convey statements that involve bills or refunds.

However, if anything like this happens, then you must contact the IRS with the following information:

You can use this information to file an official complaint. But before reporting, don’t forget to take a screenshot of the message and attach it to the complaint.

Scammers Pose As Taxpayer Advocacy Panel:

We have seen cases in which some taxpayers receive emails from fake TAP departments about tax refunds. But these emails are scams where fraudsters try to get personal and financial information.

The TAP is a volunteer board that doesn’t have access to taxpayers’ personal or financial information. You can avoid this by maintaining paycheck records using real paystub and tax forms.

Email Scam Scheme:

It is another popular method that scammers use to steal personal information. But the IRS doesn’t initiate conversations using Emails or mailbox services.

So, if you receive an unwanted email or post, it’s fraud. You can report these types of scams by visiting the official scam alert page of the IRS. Here are certain conditions when IRS initiates contact using email:

• If the taxpayer has an overdue tax payment
• Illegal tax return or employment tax payment

In addition, the IRS also calls or comes to visit home or office when they want to investigate something.

Unemployment Fraud Schemes:

When the new tax season starts, the IRS reminds workers to look for their unemployment records or benefit payments. But this season, organized crime groups have a surge in wrong unemployment claims.

These groups use stolen identities and records to collect benefits offered by the IRS. So, according to the rules, any worker who receives a false 1099-G should report it to the state agency.

Apart from this, if you want more knowledge about unemployment scams and wrong 1099-G, you can visit the US department of labor website. Here are the following indications that show you may have become a victim of this activity:

In addition, if your employer receives a notification that entails a request for information for an unemployment claim. So, these are tiny yet essential signals, and you should keep an eye out.

Phone Scams:

IRS is a tax department that doesn’t leave threatening or pre-recorded messages for tax filers. So, if you receive anything like this, it’s undoubtedly fake. In most cases, scammers ask you to call back; otherwise, their warrant will be issued.

The scammers can spoof the numbers from anywhere in the country, even from the IRS office. So, this is a severe issue due to which taxpayers can’t identify the original number.

But remember that the IRS mail a bill payable to the US treasury, and the department never asks you to pay in a third-party account.

Conclusion:

There are many other ways that scammers are using to steal your hard-earned money or financial data. For instance, recently, crooks have tried these:

• They fake to be from IRS to get banking and other information
• Have planned FBI-themed ransomware fraud
• They pretend to be from a tax preparation company

Furthermore, people use automated calls when they request tax payments. In short, there are hundreds of scam schemes, and you can avoid these by using precautions.

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