IRS Warns Taxpayers of Email Scams

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) joins state tax agencies, and the tax industry, in warning tax professionals and taxpayers of phishing email scams as the 2017 filing season comes to a close.

Tax-related scams are popular as the April 18 deadline approaches. Phishing emails with tax themes, which may request last-minute deposit changes for refunds or account updates, are common. One scam, posing as the taxpayer, asks tax preparers to change refund destinations. Taxpayers could also receive fake emails from tax software providers to update account information.

To better protect themselves, the IRS urges taxpayers to recognize phishing emails, calls, or text messages pretending to be from software companies or banks. Tax professionals should strengthen their account passwords and verbally confirm last-minute changes with clients.

Taxpayers who receive suspicious messages claiming to be from the IRS, or from tax software providers, should forward them to [email protected].

Read more details from the IRS here.