IRS warns taxpayers of ‘claim your tax refund online’ scam
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The Internal Revenue of Service (IRS) warned taxpayers to keep an eye for a summer surge on tax scams through emails and text messages promising tax refunds or offers to ‘resolve’ tax problems.
The emails and text messages touch on a variety of topics but many center around emails urging people to “Claim your tax refund online,” text messages that the person’s tax return was “banned” by the IRS, and reports promising the taxpayers about a third round of Economic Impact Payments.
Taxpayers and tax professionals should be alert to fake communications from scammers posing as legitimate organizations in the tax and financial community, including the IRS. These scams are riddled with spelling errors and awkward phrasing. In addition, the messages have an embedded URL link to redirect people to phishing sites to get the taxpayer’s personal information like this example:
“Dear Tax Payer, We hope this message finds you well. We are writing to inform you abount an important matter regarding your recent tax return filing. Our record indicate that we have received your tax return for the fiscal inconsistencies or missing information that require your attention and clarification. You will receive a tax refund of $976.00 , We will process this amount once you have submitted the document we need for the steps to claim your tax refund.” Sender : INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE”
“People are being flooded with these email and text messages, but we want them to avoid getting swept up in these terrible scams. Taxpayers should be wary; remember, don’t click on links from questionable sources,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
