DURING THE PAST FEW YEARS… CON ARTISTS HAVE BEEN TARGETING TAX PROFESSIONALS WITH PHISHING SCAMS. PHISHING SCAMS WHICH HAVE SPECIFIC TARGETS ARE CALLED SPEAR-PHISHING. A SPEAR-PHISHING EMAIL MAY APPEAR TO BE AN INNOCENT REQUEST FOR INFORMATION OR A QUICK REVIEW OF A DOCUMENT. SOMETIMES THEY ARE DISGUISED WITH WHAT LOOKS LIKE PRIVATE TAXPAYER INFORMATION. THEIR GOAL IS TO TRICK YOU INTO LOWERING YOUR GUARD WHEN YOU SEE CONFIDENTIAL DATA. ANOTHER SCAM IS PRETENDING TO BE A NEW CLIENT. BY THE WAY… SOMETIMES YOU MAY SEE IMPROPER GRAMMAR OR MISSPELLED WORDS. SCAMMERS SEND MALICIOUS ATTACHMENTS AND PROVIDE LINKS TO UNSAFE WEB SITES… WHICH COULD INFECT COMPUTER NETWORKS WITH MALWARE. SCAMMERS USE WHATEVER INFORMATION THEY CAN GET FROM ONE TAX PREPARER TO ATTACK OTHER TAX PROFESSIONALS. YOU SHOULD BE CAREFUL WITH ALL EMAIL… ESPECIALLY EMAILS YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING FROM OTHER TAX PROS. REMEMBER… PHISHING IS A SERIOUS THREAT. IT CAN EXPOSE SENSITIVE CLIENT INFORMATION AND IT CAN TRICK TAX PREPARERS INTO FILING FOR TAX REFUNDS UNDER FALSE PRETENSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PHISHING… TAX SCAMS AND CYBERSECURITY… VISIT I-R-S-DOT-GOV-SLASH-SECURITY-SUMMIT.
