By Jay Slagel
Now that we are in the heart of tax season, “tax scams” are in full force. It is highly important that you educate your account-holders about the various ways scammers may attempt to steal their information and money. The more your members know, the better they can spot red flags and avoid these tax scams.
Your members need to be extremely critical of ANY emails or phone calls from someone claiming to be an employee of the IRS or state tax authority, especially those that demand immediate payment. These governing bodies will NEVER:
- Initiate contact with a member by phone, email, text, or through social media outlets to ask for personal or financial information.
- Require that a member pay your taxes with a certain payment type, such as a prepaid debit card.
- Call a member and demand immediate payment. The IRS or State will not call about taxes a member owes without first mailing them a bill.
What do tax scams typically look like?
In these types of attacks, the scammer usually presents themselves as an employee of the IRS or State in a call/email to the targeted individual, falsely stating they want to “help” with tax filing.
In more cases than not, this type of tax scam involves an unsolicited, bogus email regarding a tax refund or bill, or threatening an audit if the bill is not paid right away.
Tax scam emails typically include the “tax service’s” name and “official seal,” and often link to a phony website - to appear to be more official.
How can your members remain protected against tax scams?
If an email is received regarding federal or state tax returns/bills warn your members:
- Don’t reply to the message.
- Don’t give out personal or financial information.
- Forward the email to phishing@irs.gov and then delete the email.
- Don’t open any attachments or click on any links, as they may contain a malicious code or virus that will infect the member’s computer.
- For tax scams involving a state's filing office, check the office's website to see how they recommend reporting an attempted attack.
If the member receives a phone call regarding federal or state tax returns/bills, urge them to:
- Ask for a contact number and an employee badge number and then call back to verify its legitimacy.
- Call the IRS or state tax authority to inquire further and verify the accuracy of the call.
- Contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Use TIGTA’s IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting web page to report the incident.
- Report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission through the FTC Complaint Assistant on their website (add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments section).
For more in depth information on how to detect or report tax scams, visit https://www.irs.gov/uac/tax-scams-consumer-alerts. You may also contact your Allied Solutions sales representative to find out more about the solutions we offer to help your financial institution remain better protected from financial loss risks.
Jay Slagel is VP of Risk Management at Allied Solutions.