Filers should be aware of online tax scams
Even with spam filters on their computers, people get bombarded by e-mail scams, some of which involve income taxes or the IRS.
And for the scammers, tax filing season means opportunities to try to fool people.
The goal of these crooks is to get people to provide their personal and financial information, whether it is Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers.
Then, they can steal money through identity theft. How to know whether it’s a “phishing” scheme? Remember, the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mail about tax matters to individuals, businesses or other taxpayers.
The typical scam e-mail isn’t personalized because the senders typically need to send messages in large volume to successfully trip someone up.
The IRS asks that if you have gotten what appears to be a suspicious e-mail, that you forward it to the agency. You can find out how on the IRS Web site.
