We asked the IRS how to avoid scams during income tax season
Mar 19, 2018, 1:35 PM
PHOENIX — As the deadline to file income taxes approaches, scammers are doing all they can to get their hands on your hard-earned money.
We asked an Internal Revenue Service special agent how you can avoid falling victim.
“The biggest thing we’re seeing right now is the phishing scams — phony emails, text messages — trying to trick people into sending personal information to the IRS,” special agent Brian Watson said, adding that scammers also contact people on the phone.
In the scam, the person on the other end of the line — or email — will threaten the victim with some sort of consequence unless he or she pays up immediately.
“They just threaten people over the phone with deportation or losing their driver’s license or a lawsuit or an arrest,” Wilson said.
The scammer will demand the victim wire money or use prepaid credit cards to settle the fake debt.
“By the time you get off the phone, the money’s gone,” Wilson said, adding that about $64 million has been made off the scam so far.
Wilson said the IRS will only contact taxpayers by mail and would never call and ask for personal information or money.
While the scams will likely continue, Wilson said awareness could help shut some of them down.
“We’re not going to stop them by arresting all of them,” he said. “We can’t … How we are going to stop it is by drying up the pool of potential victims.”
Wilson said people should consider speaking to others who they think may fall victim to the scams.
“Who do you know that could fall for this scam? It is a family member? Is it a friend? Is it a neighbor?”
Check out the rest of Wilson’s tips in the video above before the April 17 tax deadline.