Along with Tax Season, Tax Fraud Season is Also On

Last updated on January 23, 2022

One of the biggest indications of the tax season starting is the appearance of spam emails from the IRS or reputed banks in your inbox. These emails are not who they say they are. They are spammers trying to collect information from taxpayers in order to defraud the government out of your tax refund money. The more emails they send out, the more chances they have of somebody getting into their trap.

Unfortunately, every year many American taxpayers fall for ID phishing scams by tax frauds and share their tax filing information with fraudsters online who use that information to file false tax returns to get bloated tax refunds. Those who realize that their identity has been stolen early enough try to stop the filing by calling the IRS’ IPSU (Identity Protection Specialized Unit) toll-free number 1-800-908-4490 to inform the IRS about the theft. Many taxpayers discover that their identity was used to file fraudulent tax returns only when the IRS rejects their income tax return.

Tax fraud by stealing one’s identity is the top scam cited in the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams. With e-filing popularity, tax frauds have it easy to pick out taxpayers’ information. Even prison inmates are filing false returns. Digging out information about the recently deceased, sending fake IRS, going through garbage, and stealing wallets/purses are some of the ways tax frauds gain access Social Security numbers and other personal information.

You can help stop tax frauds from getting away with spamming your inbox with fake tax emails by forwarding all fraudulent emails to phishing@irs.gov. Never try to confirm the falsehood of such emails by clicking on the link(s) in the email, or opening the attachments. If you are at all suspicious just forward it to the IRS’ fraud department.