IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Summer Email, Text Scams Involving EIPs, Tax Refunds, IR-2023-131

The IRS has cautioned taxpayers to be aware of a surge of tax scams as identity thieves continue pounding out a barrage of email and text messages promising tax refunds or offers to help ‘fix’ tax problems. The special Summer news release series is aimed at raising awareness among tax professionals on ways to protect themselves – and their clients – against identity theft. The IRS has highlighted some of the most recent wave of activity involving tax scammers; they are:

• the Economic Impact Payment (EIP) scheme : these promise a third round of economic impact payment;
• false Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims : urge people to improperly claim their ERC with fake offers;
• claim your tax refund scam : these proclaim people should claim their tax refund online;
• the “Help You Fix-It” text scheme : identity thieves send messages offering to resolve the taxpayer’s problem if they click a link; and
• the “delivery service”scam: involves a mailing that arrives from a delivery service claiming to be from the IRS.

The IRS has reminded taxpayers to look for telltale signs such as obvious grammatical errors, misspellings and factual inaccuracies. Further, the IRS cautioned taxpayers to be wary of clicking on anonymous links and sharing valuable personal information and financial information. However, if taxpayers are victims of any such tax scams then they should report the email to phishing@irs.gov. In addition, they should also file a complaint with Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and visit the IRS website.