If you get a call, text or letter that claims to be from the IRS — or if you see information online about how to get a big refund — it might be a scam, or just bad tax advice. Here’s what to look for: A big payday — if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is Threats or urgent requests to pay right now or else, or to pay in a specific way Misspellings and grammatical errors Links, attachments or odd URLs — all trusted IRS links go to irs.gov What to do Make sure it’s the IRS reaching out: See tips on how to know if it’s really the IRS contacting you, or give the IRS a call Protect yourself and your information: Get an Identity Protection PIN If someone scammed you — or tried to — report it How to avoid tax scams Trending tax scams These are 3 of the top tax scams we’re tracking today: Bad advice on social media is misleading people into claiming tax credits they don’t qualify for People target seniors pretending to be government officials Scams target car dealers and sellers See the full list of tax scams and consumer alerts we’re tracking. Get reliable tax info from a trusted source Follow IRS on social media Visit an IRS walk-in center Talk to a trusted tax professional Related Know the signs of identity theft Know how and when the IRS contacts taxpayers See tax fraud alerts from IRS Criminal Investigations Report suspected tax fraud activity Report identity theft for a business
