Most
taxpayers don’t know that the IRS doesn’t initiate communication by
email. Scammers take advantage of this fact and send authentic-looking
email messages complete with the IRS logo that are designed to steal
your social security number, bank account numbers, and other
information.
If
you receive an email claiming to be from the IRS, don’t open it. If you
open one of these emails by accident, don’t respond to it or click any
links in the email.
The IRS has issued a series of statements about these scams to help raise awareness:
- The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or social media channels to request personal or financial information;
-
The
IRS never asks for detailed personal and financial information like PIN
numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for credit
card, bank or other financial accounts; -
The address of the official IRS website is www.irs.gov.
Do not be misled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com,
.net, .org or anything other than .gov. If you discover a website that
claims to be the IRS but you suspect it is bogus, do not provide any
personal information on their site and report it to the IRS; -
If
you receive a phone call, fax or letter in the mail from an individual
claiming to be from the IRS but you suspect they are not an IRS
employee, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine if the IRS has a
legitimate need to contact you. Report any bogus correspondence.
Forward a suspicious email to phishing@irs.gov; -
You
can help the IRS and other law enforcement agencies shut down these
schemes. Visit the IRS.gov website to get details on how to report scams
and helpful resources if you are the victim of a scam. Click on
“Reporting Phishing” at the bottom of the page.