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