As tax season gets started, with the possibility of additional stimulus payments coming, with significant unemployment and many individuals in financial trouble, we continue to see a rise in SCAMs.
SCAM phone calls, texts, and emails are coming fast and furious. IRS is supposedly calling, saying you need to send them money or you will be hauled off to jail. Social Security calls coming in saying your Social Security number has been frozen and you will not receive your benefits. Most recently, people are receiving SCAM phone calls about providing personal information to get access to your stimulus payments. Often, they are requesting payments by gift cards so that a paper trail does not exist.
First and foremost, unless you are already working with a government agency, their first contact will never be a phone call, email, or text. Whether you are dealing with IRS, your local state government, the Social Security Administration, or even something related to your local municipality, the first contact will generally be a letter. Once you have reached out to the IRS or the state government and have a specific point of contact, you may find someone who will reach out to you via email or a phone call. Generally, even for later contacts, any federal or state government agency will contact you via the postal service.
One of our first recommendations is to avoid answering the phone if you do not recognize the phone number. These scammers have the sophistication for the phone number on your caller ID to have a local exchange. Let any call that comes up on your caller ID with an unknown number go to voicemail. If someone leaves you a message indicating they are calling from the IRS, from Social Security, regarding your stimulus payment, DO NOT CALL the number back.
I know it goes against many to not to answer a ringing phone or not to return a phone call. If you “have to” answer the phone, pick up the receiver but do not say anything. Wait to see who it is. If it is a robocall, a call from a computer, you will quickly know that and can hang up. If a human is on the other end of the line, wait to see what they say. Avoid saying anything. Some of these scammers record what you are saying to insert it into a recording elsewhere, pretending to be you.
Never, and I cannot stress this enough, never give out personal information. If someone says they are calling from the IRS, your credit card company or bank still do not give out personal information. If you believe there may be an issue, tell the person you will call back to discuss. If they give you a phone number to call back, do not use that number until you have verified it. Go to the website of the institution and get the phone number from there. Get it from the back of your credit card statement or your bank statement. Get the number from somewhere else. By calling a verified phone number, you will know if there is a legitimate concern.
Texts are easy enough to ignore. If you feel there could be a problem, go elsewhere to get the phone number and respond via telephone.
If you have an email that you are unsure of, let your mouse hover over the sender’s information without opening the email. You can then see the email address it was sent from. Often you will see the sender’s email is a group of random letters, and you can ignore it. Sometimes, it may be something close to what you are used to seeing. Check carefully – is there a letter missing or an extra letter. Does it say “.” something other than the .com, .net, or .org that you are used to? If anything looks suspicious, do not open the email.
A strong recommendation – have an anti-virus protection program on your computer with automatic updates. Make sure that you install it initially and that you are regularly updating it. Hackers are developing new types of viruses regularly. Upgrades and updates are being done to anti-virus programs continually to catch the latest versions. If you do not keep your anti-virus program updated, the software may not be able to catch something newer.
The IRS is seeing an ever-increasing number of fake, fraudulent returns being filed. Someone uses your Social Security number, uses fake W2s or 1099Rs, and files a return, generally with a large refund that gets directly deposited to an untraceable bank account. When you then file the actual return, you may be told that someone has already filed with that Social Security number. You may also get a letter in the mail from IRS indicating that you need to verify your identity.
Once someone has been a victim of identity theft, the IRS assigns them an identity protection (IP) pin. The taxpayer is then required to put this PIN on their tax return each year. This shows the IRS that the return is valid and can be processed without delay.
Now, IRS has a new program that allows anyone who wants to get a voluntary IP pin. You can go to IRS.gov and use the “Get an IP Pin” tool. If you do not have an online IRS account, you will first need to create one. Once created, you will need to go through a verification process. After your identity has been verified, you will be provided with your IP pin.
That IP pin will need to be entered into your e-file tax return before the return can be filed. Failure to include it will result in the return being rejected. Each tax year, you will be required to obtain a new IP pin. These numbers are only good for one year.
As a tax preparer, we cannot obtain an IP pin for you. If this is something you choose to do, you will need to go to IRS.gov and go through the “Get an IP Pin” tool yourself. You will then need to make sure that you give us that pin when you give us your tax return information.